see that letter!” he said, his voice harsh with repressed alarm.
“In a moment,” the girl said, adjusting her skirt com-
posedly. “Evidently I was right in riding my hunch. Let me
go on reading: ‘by four heavily armed vessels flying the
lights of the navy of Hammersmith II. The position of the
liner at that time will be at coded co-ordinates 88-A-theta-
88-aleph-D and-per-se-and. It will’ “
“Miss Lje,” Weinbaum said. “I’m sorry to interrupt you
again, but what you’ve said already would justify me in
jailing you at once, no matter how loudly your sponsors
might scream. I don’t know about this Interstellar Information
outfit, or whether or not you did receive any such letter as
the one you pretend to be quoting. But I can tell you that
you’ve shown yourself to be in possession of information
that only yours truly and four other men are supposed to
know. It’s already too late to tell you that everything you
say may be held against you; all I can say now is, it’s high
time you clammed up!”
“I thought so,” she said, apparently not disturbed in the
least. “Then that liner is scheduled to hit those co-ordinates,
and the coded time co-ordinate corresponds with the predicted
Universal Time. Is it also true that the Brindisi will be
carrying a top-secret communication device?”
“Are you deliberately trying to make me imprison you?”
Weinbaum said, gritting his teeth. “Or is this just a stunt,
designed to show me that my own bureau is full of leaks?”
“It could turn into that,” Dana admitted. “But it hasn’t,
yet. Robin, I’ve been as honest with you as I’m able to be.