"Almost a full tank of reactant!" replied the young engineer. "And the
after burners showed about as much wear as if the ship had jumped from
Earth to Venus."

"What's that, young man?" snapped Walters, stepping forward quickly.
"What are you talking about?"

Kit Barnard faced the commander and began to explain.

"We were both curious about Quent Miles' ship, sir," he said. "We
wondered what kind of equipment he had to get that kind of speed, so we
went aboard and looked her over. She looks as if she just made a routine
flight. Hardly any of her baffling has been eaten away and her motors
are cooling fast, and I'd swear by the stars there isn't anything on
that ship to give her the kind of speed she made out here."

"Hm-m! There's something funny about this," mused Walters.

Strong stepped forward quickly. "Would you like me to investigate, sir?"
he asked eagerly.

"Of course not," snapped Walters. "What's the matter with you? We've got
a whole planet full of people about to lose their homes and you want to
take time off to investigate pure speculation!"

"I'm sorry, sir." Strong's face flushed at the rebuke.

"Carry on! Work with Joe Howard."