Bigman was outraged. ''I'd give it away? Why, you Earthslug, a blaster couldn't have forced it out of me."
"I know. No torture could have forced it out of you, Bigman. You'd just give it away, free. You're a miserable actor and you know it. Once you got mad, it would come spilling out, one way or another. That's why I half wanted you to stay on Mimas, remember?
I knew I couldn't tell you the planned course of action and I knew you'd misunderstand what I was doing and be miserable about it. As it was, though, you turned out a godsend."
"I did? For beating up that cobber?"
"Indirectly, yes. It gave me the opportunity to make it look as though I were sincerely swapping Wess's freedom for your life. It took less acting to do that than to give Wess away under any conditions I could have dreamed up in your absence. In fact, as it was, I didn't have to act at all. It was a good swap."
"Aw, Lucky."
"Aw, yourself. Besides, you were so heartbroken about it that they never suspected a trick. Anyone watching you would have been convinced I was really betraying Earth."
"Sands of Mars, Lucky," said Bigman, stricken, "I should have known you wouldn't do anything like that. I was a nitwit."
"I'm glad you were," said Lucky fervently, and he ruffled the little fellow's hair affectionately.
When Conway and Wess joined them at dinner, Wess said, "This isn't going to be the kind of homecoming that fellow Devoure can expect. Ship's sub-ether is full of the stuff they're printing on Earth about us; about you especially, of course."
Lucky frowned. "That's nothing to be thankful about. It just makes our job harder in the future. Publicity! Stop and think what they would be saying if the Sirians had been just one inch smarter and hadn't fallen for the bait or had pulled out of the conference at the last minute."
Conway shuddered visibly. "I'd rather not. But whatever it would be, that's what Devoure is getting."
Lucky said, "I guess he'll survive. His uncle will pull him through."
"Anyway," said Bigman, "we're through with him."
"Are we?" said Lucky somberly. "I wonder."
And they ate in silence for a few moments.
Conway, in an obvious attempt to alter the sud denly darkened atmosphere, said, "Of course, in a sense the Sirians could not afford to leave Wess on Mimas, so we didn't really give them a fair chance. After all, they were looking for the capsule in the rings, and for all they know, Wess, only thirty thou sand miles outside the rings, might… "
Bigman dropped his fork, and his eyes were like saucers. "Blasting rockets!"
What's the matter, Bigman?" asked Wess kindly. "Did you accidentally think of something and sprain your brain?"
"Shut up, leather-head," said Bigman. "Listen, Lucky, in all this mess we forgot about Agent X's capsule. It's still out there in the rings unless the Sirians have found it already; and it they haven't, they still have a couple of weeks to do it in."
Conway said at once, "I've thought of that, Bigman. But frankly, I consider it lost for good. You can't find anything in the rings."
"But, Chief, hasn't Lucky told you about the special X-ray mass detectors they have and… "
By then, though, all were staring at Lucky. He had a queer look on his face, as though he couldn't make up his mind whether to laugh or to swear. "Great Galaxy," he cried. "I forgot about it completely."
"The capsule?" said Bigman. "You forgot it?"
"Yes. I forgot I had it. Here it is." And Lucky brought something metallic and about an inch in diameter out of his pocket and put it on the table.
Bigman's nimble fingers were on it first, turning it over and over, then the others snatched at it too, and took their turns.
Bigman said, "Is that the capsule? Are you sure?"
"I'm reasonably sure. We'll open it, of course, and make certain."
"But, when, how, where… " They were all about
him, demanding.
He fended them off. "I'm sorry. I really am… Look, do you remember the few words we picked up from Agent X just before his ship blew up? Remember the syllables 'normal orb,' which we decided meant 'normal orbit'? Well, the Sirians made the natural assumption that 'normal' meant 'usual,' that the capsule would be put into the kind of orbit usual for ring particles, and looked in the rings for it.
"However, 'normal' also means perpendicular. The rings of Saturn move directly west to east, so the capsule in a normal orbit to the rings would move directly north to south, or south to north. This made sense, because then the capsule would not be lost in the rings.
"Now any orbit about Saturn moving directly north and south must pass over the north and south poles, no matter how else that orbit varies. We approached Saturn's south pole and I watched the mass detector for anything that seemed to be in the proper type of orbit. In polar space there were hardly any particles, so I felt I ought to be able to spot it if it were there.
I didn't like to say anything about it, though, because the chances were small, I thought, and I hated to rouse false hopes.
"But something registered on the mass detectors, and I took the chance. I matched velocities and then left the ship. As you guessed later, Bigman, I seized the opportunity to gimmick the Agrav attachment at that time in preparation for the later surrender, but I also picked up the capsule.
"When we landed in Mimas I left it among the air-conditioning coils in Wess's quarters. Then, when we came back to get him and surrender him to Devoure, I picked up the capsule and put it in my pocket. I was routinely searched for weapons when I embarked on the ship, I recall, but the robot searcher did not interpret an inch sphere as a weapon… There are serious drawbacks to using robots. Anyway, that's the whole story."
"But why didn't you tell us?" howled Bigman. Lucky looked confused. "I meant to. Honestly. But after I first picked up the capsule and got back to the ship, we had already been spotted by the Sirians, remember, and it was a question of getting away. After that, in fact, if you'll think back, there was never one moment when something wasn't popping. I just- somehow-never got around to remembering to tell anyone."
"What a brain," said Bigman contemptuously. "No wonder you don't like to go anywhere without me."
Conway laughed and slapped the small Martian on the back. "That's it, Bigman, take care of the big lug and make sure he knows which way is up."
"Once," said Wess, "you get someone to tell you which way is up, of course."
And the ship swirled down through Earth's atmosphere toward landing.