Heartened by the reaction of the men around him, the speaker pressed
his advantage. "We've all hauled cargo for the Solar Guard before, and
the sealed-bid system was perfectly satisfactory then!" he shouted. "Why
isn't it satisfactory now? What's all this nonsense about a space race?"

Again, the murmur filled the room and the men glared accusingly at
Walters. But the commander refused to knuckle down to any show of
arrogance. He fixed a cold, stony eye on the short man. "Mr. Brett," he
snapped in a biting voice, "you have been invited to this meeting as a
guest, not by any right you think you have as the owner of a shipping
company. A guest, I said, and I ask that you conduct yourself with that
social obligation in mind!"

Before Brett could reply, Walters turned away from him and addressed the
others calmly. "Despite Mr. Brett's outburst, his question is a good
one. And the answer is quite simple. The bids submitted by your
companies were not satisfactory in this case because we believe that
they were made in bad faith!"

For once, there was silence in the room as the men stared at Walters in
shocked disbelief. "There are fourteen shipping companies represented in
this room, some of them the most respected in the Solar Alliance," he
continued, his voice edged with knifelike sarcasm. "I cannot find it in
my conscience to accuse all of you of complicity in this affair, but
nevertheless we are faced with one of the most startling coincidences I
have ever seen."

Walters paused and looked around the room, measuring the effect of his
words. Satisfied, he went on grimly, "There isn't enough difference
between the bids of each of you, not _five credits'_ worth of