Evans and Seaworth laughed together as the commander strode away. "The old man's nutty about the Hawk these days," Evans commented.
"Well, if I can get back to the moon with the information I have here," the other said, "it means the end for Mr. Hawk. I found the man I was hunting for—he'd been one of the Hawk's crew and had left him on account of some squabble over the division of loot. He was pretty much afraid of his old chief still—I guess the Hawk's got a deadly record as regards traitors—but he gave me all I wanted for a price. I have the exact location of the Hawk's base in one of the lunar cities, the names of the officials who've been harboring him and selling him fuel—all that we need."
"Once back on the moon we can set a trap there that will spring on the Hawk the first time he comes into his base. There's only one queer thing about it all, and that is that the man who told me all this disappeared on the very next day. No one has the slightest idea what became of him, though some of the officials I talked with thought he'd merely decamped with the price of his information. I don't know, though—it may have been something else."
"The Hawk?" Evans questioned, and the other slowly nodded.
"I'm afraid so—his way with traitors is short and sweet. It only worries me because if it was he, then he knows what I've learned and knows I'm taking back that information with me."
Ready to Start
Evans frowned. "That would make him desperate, all right. The Commander has an idea that he might even attack our rocket to get you, Seaworth."
"You mean that he'd even try to take an Earth-Guard rocket?"
"Yes, but it's just an idea. We'll keep a mighty sharp lookout for him, and whatever else the Hawk may have done, I think he's too wary a bird to try tackling Earth-Guard rockets."