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“Will you let us go when I’ve told you?” Lon asked bitterly.

“Not without one more gadget,” the skipper added amiably. “You made something that put a screen around the planet yonder, so it didn’t get burned up. It’d oughta be useful. The company’ll put one around Mercury. Convenient for minin’ operations. One around that planet that’s too close to Sirius. Oh, there’s plenty of places that’ll be useful. So you’ll get set to draw up the plans for that, too—and explanations of how it works. Then we’ll talk about lettin’ you go.”

Lon knew that he wouldn’t be let go in any case. Not after he’d told them what was wanted. Not by men who’d work on a pleasure craft like this. Not with Cathy a prisoner with him. But he might as well get all the cards down.

“And if I won’t tell you what you want to know?” he asked.

The skipper shrugged his shoulders. “You were knocked out a while,” he said without heat. “While we were waitin’ for you to come to, we told her—” he jerked his thumb at Cathy—”what would happen to her if you weren’t obligin’. We told her plenty. She knows we mean it. We won’t hurt you until we’ve finished with her. So you’d better get set to talk. I’ll let her see if she can persuade you peaceable. I’ll give her ten minutes.”