Luis shook his head. "It was a brave thing. You might also have been caught by the fuel, and you did not even have a suit such as I wore. When I and my family light candles to thank God and to ask His blessing for you, we will want to give Him your names." They told him their names, and his lips moved as he repeated them. Then he waved them to chairs. "Please sit down and talk with me for a few minutes. This is not a place where one can extend the hospitality of his house, but I can at least offer you chairs." Keen brown eyes surveyed them. "You are both very young, eh? What are you doing here?" "Working," Scotty answered. "I'm in vehicle maintenance and Rick is in Pegasus electronics." "So? It is an exciting place in which to work. Even I, a fireman, feel this excitement. Tell me, do you think this _hombre de terra_, this Earthman, was the cause of the tragedy this morning? I call it a tragedy, because it was so. So much work, so much love went into that rocket! _Sangre de Cristo!_ It was a terrible thing." "No one seems to know for sure," Rick replied. "The project officer couldn't say. But there was no Earthman picture." The bandaged hands spread expressively. "A picture could have been burned. Now perhaps we will never know. You understand, I have thought much about this thing. Once I believed this Earthman made the rockets go bad because he must think such things are against the will of God. But when I heard of the thefts, I no longer thought so. I thought about how a thief could take his stolen wealth from this guarded place." "We've wondered about that, too," Scotty said. "You decided something?" Rick leaned forward on his chair. Luis Hermosa had started him thinking again. "The thief couldn't get his stolen goods from the base if he went through a gate in his own car, could he?" "He would not dare," Luis replied, "because he knows the guards check the trunks of cars, and sometimes even look under seats. He might be unlucky. He would know this." "Spot check," Scotty nodded. Rick hadn't known about the spot check, but it made sense. He continued, "So there's only one way. The thief has to take the stolen supplies from the base in an official vehicle." "Such vehicles are not checked," Luis agreed excitedly. "But also, such vehicles are not taken far from this camp. If a truck, say, were gone too long, would it not be noticed?" "It certainly would," Scotty stated. "There must be only a few places where the thief could go," Rick said thoughtfully. "When he reaches one, he must hide his stolen goods and leave them. Later, by traveling a long way to reach the spot from the main road, he could get the stolen stuff with his own car. Or, maybe someone from outside who doesn't work on the base at all could go to the hiding place and pick them up. Can you think of any other way?" Luis and Scotty couldn't, and said so. Rick asked, "What are the possible places?"