West stayed silent. There was no use in playing innocent with Belden, for Belden had guessed too close to the truth.
Belden lowered his voice. "You have the same hunch as I have. You figure Darling's hormone is worth more than all this mummery going on downstairs. And you're here to find it. I told Nevin that Darling's hormone was the thing for us to find instead of messing around outside, but he didn't think so. After we took Darling to the moon, Nevin smashed the ship's controls. He was afraid I might get away, you see. He didn't trust me and he couldn't afford to let me get away."
"I'll trade with you," West told him quietly.
"We'll go to the moon in your ship and see Darling," said Belden. "We'll beat it out of him."
West grinned wryly. "Darling's dead," he said.
"Did you search the hut?" asked Belden.
"Of course not. Why should I have searched it?"
"It's there, then," said Belden, grimly. "Hidden in the hut somewhere. I've turned this place upside down and I'm sure it isn't here. Neither the formula nor the hormones themselves. Not unless Darling was trickier than I thought he was."
"You know what this hormone is," said West smoothly, trying to make it sound as if he himself might know it.
"No," said Belden shortly. "Darling didn't trust us. He was angry at what Nevin was trying to do. And once he made a crack that the man who had it could rule the Solar System. Darling wasn't kidding, West. He knew more about hormones than all the rest of us put together."