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was either getting to their feet, too, or was still on the ground. When 75 to 150 pounds fall on
your back without warning, you don't get to your feet in a hurry. But Cook had. He was not
only on his feet, he had gotten to Urteil's side and was bending over him." "What does that
prove?" demanded Cook. "It proves you didn't go down when the gravity went up, or you
couldn't have gotten there in time. And why didn't you go down when the gravity went up?
Because you expected it to go up and were braced for it. And why did you expect it to go
up? Because you tripped the lever." Cook turned to Dr. Peverale. "This is persecution. It's
madness." But Dr. Peverale looked at his second in stricken horror. Bigman said, "Let me
reconstruct the business. Cook was working with Urteil. That's the only way 160 Urteil could
have learned our route in the mines. But he was working with Urteil out of fear. Maybe Urteil
was blackmailing him. Anyway, the only way Cook could get out from under was to kill Urteil.
When I said I could murder the cobber if we fought under low gravity. I must have put an idea
into his head, and when we had the fight he stood there waiting at the lever. That's all."
"Wait," cried Cook urgently, almost choked, "this is allthis is all " "You don't have to go by
me," said Bigman. "If my theory is right, and I'm sure it is, then Urteil must have something in
writing or on recording or on film that he can hold over Cook's head. Otherwise, Cook
wouldn't have felt trapped to the point of murder. So search Urteil's effects. You'll find
something and that will be it." "I agree with Bigman," said Lucky. Dr. Peverale said in
bewilderment, "I suppose it's the only way of settling the matter, though how " And the air
seemed to go out of Dr. Hanley Cook, leaving him pale, shaken, and helpless. "Wait," he
said weakly, "I'll explain." And all faces turned toward him. Hanley Cook's lean cheeks were
bathed in perspiration. His hands as he raised them, almost in supplication, trembled badly.
He said, "Urteil came to me shortly after he arrived on Mercury. He said he was
investigating the Observatory. He said Senator Swen-son had evidence of inefficiency and
waste. He said it was obvious that Dr. Peverale ought to be retired; that he was an old man
and incapable of bearing up 161 under the responsibility. He said I might make a logical
replacement." Dr. Peverale, who listened to this with an air of stunned surprise, cried out.
"Cook!" "I agreed with him," said Cook sullenly. " You are too old. I'm running the place
anyway while you occupy yourself with your Sirius mania." He turned again to Lucky. "Urteil
said that if I helped him in his investigation he would see to it that I would be the next
director. I believed him; everyone knows Senator Swenson is a powerful man. "I gave him a
great deal of information. Some of it was in writing and signed. He said he needed it for
legal proceedings afterward. "And thenand then he began holding that written information
over my head. It turned out that he was a lot more interested in Project Light and the Council
of Science. He wanted me to use my position to become a kind of personal spy for him. He
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made it quite plain that he would go to Dr. Peverale with evidence of what I had done if I
refused. That would have meant the end of my career, of everything. "I had to spy for him. I
had to give information concerning the route Starr and Bigman were to take in the mines. I
kept him up to date on everything Mindes did. Every time I surrendered a bit more to him I
was more helplessly in his power. And after a while I knew that someday he would break
me, no matter how much I helped him. He was that kind of man. I began to feel that the only
way I could escape was to kill him. If only I knew how "Then Bigman came to me with his
plan to fight Urteil under low gravity. He was so confident that he 162 could toss Urteil about.
I thought then I might The chances would be one in a hundred, maybe one in a thousand, but
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