Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

28 ASTOUNDING ‘SCIENCE FICTION indications whatever of any such thing. And now, I think we had all better get out of here and take ad- vantage of that less-than-two-hours sleep we'll get before the preliminaries start.” Knight noticed, as they went down out of the ship, that George was still in the drive room, checking the control panel to drive circuits. The robot did not look up from its work, though: it saw them pass. Robots confined their speaking to necessary answers and wasted no time with such amenities as “Good morning” and “Good night.” He parted company with the two generals at the Computer area gate; they to return to their Center hotel and he to drive through the slumber- ing streets to his own cottage. Tired and sleepy, he set the alarm to arouse him in an hour and a half and went to bed. , . He had been asleep an hour and fifteen minutes when he was awakened by the ringing of the doorbell and June’s voice. ““Blacky—wake up!”’ “What is it?” he called, swinging his feet to the floor and reaching for his clothes. ““Come over to Tim’s house.” There was both indignation and urgency in June’s tone. ‘See if you can straighten things out.” He heard her hurry ‘back to the Miles’ cottage, her footsteps clicking sharp and fast on the walk. He grinned, despite his worry that Tim = P might be in some kind of trouble—the manner of her walking indicated that June was beginning to get mad. He put on his clothes and went out into the pre-dawn darkness. The lights were on in the Miles cottage and there was a black sedan parked at the curb before it. It had a government- service licence plate, but there was nothing about the number on the plate to indicate the type of service it represented. Tim Miles’ voice came from within the house, angry and incredulous, and a vaguely familiar voice answered him. Knight went to the door and entered without knocking. There were four in the room; Tim Miles, Connie, June, and a cold-eyed man in a gray suit. Knight recognized him with a start; his name was Whit- ney and he was a Security man. He returned Knight’s ““Heilo”’ with a nod of recognition and Connie, sitting in a chair by the card table, said “Hello, Blacky.’’ Miles, red-faced and scowling, hardly glanced away from Whitney, while June sat one-hipped on the card table beside Connie, her eyes smoldering and her hands grip- ping the edge of the table until the knuckles were white. Knight stopped beside Whitney. ‘‘What is this?” he asked. “The ship has been sabotaged,” Whitney replied. “It’s a lie!’ Miles declared. “Just a minute—”’ Knight looked from Miles back to Whitney. “It wasn’t sabotaged when I left it an hour ago.” “It was sabotaged a year ago,” Whitney said. ‘““We didn’t learn of it until tonight—in fact, not over half an hour ago.” “Are you sure?” Knight asked. “I’m supposed to have done it!” Miles burst out wrathfully. “I’m sup- osed to have cross-wired the circuits from the control panel to the drive so that the drive will explode on take- off.” Knight made his reply to Whitney. “T can’t believe that. Pve known Miles and worked with him for several years. Of course, I realized that Se- curity wants more positive proof of a suspected man’s innocence than the personal opinion of his friends. If you CORMEOOKSsEO im