interest. But she looked acutely uncomfortable.

Calhoun finished with the Directory. He got out the micro-film reels
which contained more information. He was specifically after the Med
Service history of all the planets in this sector. He went through the
filmed record of every inspection ever made on Weald and on Dara.

But Sector Twelve had not been run well. There was no adequate account
of a plague which had wiped out three-quarters of the population of an
inhabited planet! It had happened shortly after one Med Ship visit,
and was over before another Med Ship came by.

There should have been a painstaking investigation, even after the
fact. There should have been a collection of infectious material and a
reasonably complete identification and study of the agent. It hadn't
been made. There was probably some other emergency at the time, and it
slipped by. Calhoun, whose career was not to be spent in this sector,
resolved on a blistering report about this negligence and its
consequences.

He kept himself casually busy, ignoring the girl. A Med Ship man has
resources of study and meditation with which to occupy himself during
overdrive travel from one planet to another. Calhoun made use of those
resources. He acted as if he were completely unconscious of the
stowaway. But Murgatroyd watched her with charmed attention.

Hours after her discovery, she said uneasily, "Please?"

Calhoun looked up.