He found Dalon and said to him, "Watch your men. They're resentful. Some of them might even desert--and Y'Nor wasn't joking about that gallows for us last night." "I know." Dalon ran his finger around the collar that seemed to be getting increasingly tighter for him. "I've warned them that the Occupation troops would get them in the end." * * * * * He found Graver at a dial-covered panel. The brown-eyed secretary--her eyes now darker and more appealing than ever--was just leaving, a notebook in her hand. "Since when," Kane asked, "has it been customary for technicians to need the assistance of secretaries to read a dial?" "But, sir, she is a very good technician, herself. Her paper work is now done and she was helping me trace a circuit that was fluctuating." Kane peered suspiciously into Graver's expressionless face. "Are you sure it was a circuit that was doing the fluctuating?" "Yes, sir." "Did you know that half of Dalon's guards seem to be ready to jump ship?" "Yes, sir. But their resentment is not characteristic of my technicians." He realized, with surprise, that that was true. And Graver, in contrast to Dalon's agitation, had the calm, purposeful air of a man who had pondered deeply upon an unpleasant future and had taken steps to prevent it. "I have no desire to hang, sir, and I have convinced my men that it would be suicide for part of them to desert. I shall do my best to convince Dalon's guards of the same thing." He went back through the plant, much of his confidence restored, and back to the ship. Y'Nor was pacing the floor again, his impatience keying him to a mood more vile than ever. "This ship will leave at exactly twenty-three fifteen, Vogar time," Y'Nor said. "Any man not on it then will be regarded as a deserter and executed as such when I return with the Occupation force." He stopped his pacing to stare at Kane with the ominous anticipation of a spider surveying a captured fly. "Although I can operate this ship with a minimum of two crewmen, I shall expect you to make certain that every man is on board." Kane went back out of the ship, his confidence shaken again, and back to the plant. * * * * * Night came at last and, finally, the first shielded tank of fuel was delivered to the ship. Others followed, one by one, as the hours went by. It was almost morning when Graver came to him and said, "My duties and those of my men are finished here, sir. Shall we go to prepare the ship for flight?" "Yes--get busy at it," Kane answered. "Don't give the commander any excuse to get any madder than he already is." An hour later the last of the fuel went into the last tank and was hauled away. Someone said, "That's all," and a switch clicked. A machine rumbled off into silence, followed by others. Control panels went dark. Within a minute there was not a machine running, not a panel lighted.