"Well, hardly ... under the circumstances. I'm afraid you'll have to take our word."
Greg looked at the company man, and shook his head. "Not that I don't trust you," he said, "but I'm afraid I can't give you what you want," Greg said.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know where Dad made his strike."
The company man's face darkened. "Somebody knows where it is. Your father would never have found something like that without telling his own sons...."
"Sorry," Greg said. "Of course, I can tell you where you can find out, if you want to go look."
"We've already searched his records...."
"Some of his records," Greg said. "Not all of them. There was a compartment behind the main control panel in Dad's orbit-ship. Dad used it to store deeds, claims, other important papers. There was a packet of notes in there before your men fired on the ship. But of course, maybe you searched more thoroughly, the second time."
Tawney stared at him for a moment, then at Johnny. Johnny Coombs shrugged his shoulders solemnly, and shook his head. Without a word, the little company man walked to the intercom speaker on the wall. He spoke sharply into it, waited, then had a brief, pungent conversation with someone. Then he turned back to Greg, his face heavy with suspicion. "You saw these papers?"
"Certainly I saw them. I didn't have time to read them through, but what else could they be?"