"Yes--rumor!" stormed Arden with a chuckle. "Keep you from your first love, me eye. I'll play second fiddle to nothing, Donald. I'll just replace your original first love, but I'm too stinking bright to make you forget it entirely. That, my sweet, is why I brought you here. You can go chase the rumor whilst I do a bit of shopping. May I borrow your checkbook?" "Rumor?" repeated Channing with some puzzlement. "What rumor?" "Rumor has it," said Arden in hyperbolic tones, "that two gentlemen, by name James Baler and Bernard Carroll, who have spent years digging up and studying the ancient Martian Artifacts, have recently uncovered a large and strange type of vacuum tube that seems to have been used by the Martians as a means of transmitting power. Since I felt that the time had come for the honeymooners to spend at least eight minutes apart, I insisted upon Lincoln Head for our next stop because Lincoln Head happens to have been the scene of some rare happenings, if rumor--" "Oh, nuts," grinned Channing. "That's no rumor--" "And you let me ramble on," cried Arden. She caught Don on the point of the chin with a pillow and effectively smothered him. She followed her advantage with a frontal attack that carried him backward across the bed, where she landed on top viciously and proceeded to lambaste him with the other pillow. It was proceeding according to plan, this private, good-natured war, until a knock on the door brought a break in operations. Channing struggled out from beneath Arden and went to the door, trying to comb his hair by running spread fingers through it. He went with a sense of failure caused by Arden's quiet laugh and the statement that he resembled a bantam rooster. The man at the door apologized, and then said: "I'm Doug Ferris of the _Triworld News_." "Come in," said Don, "and see if you can find a place to sit." "Thanks." "I didn't know that _Triworld News_ was interested in the wedded life of the Channings. Why doesn't _Triworld_ wait until we find out about it ourselves?" "_Triworld_ does not care to pry into the private life of the newly wed Channing family," laughed Doug. "We, and the rest of the system, do not give a damn whether Mrs. Channing calls you Bunny-bit or Sugar-pie--" "Sweetums," corrected Arden with a gleam in her eye. "--we've got something big to handle. I can't get a thing out of the gang at Canalopsis, they're all too busy worrying." "And so you came here? What do you expect to get out of us? We're not connected in any way with Canalopsis." "I know," said Doug, "but you do know space. Look, Channing, the _Solar Queen_ has been missing since yesterday morning!" Don whistled. "See what I mean? What I want to know is this: What is your opinion on the matter? You've lived in space for years, on Venus Equilateral and you've had experience beyond anybody I can reach." "Missing since yesterday morning," mused Channing. "That means trouble."