"You'd be surprised. How did you catch on to him so soon?"
"Your paycheck," said Betty. "As soon as I saw that ridiculous amount, it was obvious that there was gross mismanagement here. It had to be Jeffers."
Tolliver groaned.
"Then, on the way over here, he as good as admitted everything. You didn't hear him, I guess. Well, he seemed to be caught all unaware, and seemed to blame you for it."
"Sure!" grumbled the pilot. "He thinks I told you he was grafting or smuggling, or whatever he has going for him here. That's why I want to get out of here—before I find myself involved in some kind of fatal accident!"
"What do you know about the crooked goings-on here?" asked Betty after a startled pause.
"Nothing," retorted Tolliver. "Except that there are some. There are rumors, and I had a halfway invitation to join in. I think he sells things to the mining colonies and makes a double profit for himself by claiming the stuff lost in transit. You didn't think you scared him that bad over a little slack managing?"
The picture of Jeffers huddled with his partners in the headquarters building, plotting the next move, brought Tolliver to his feet.
There was nothing in the unused office but an old table and half a dozen plastic crates. He saw that the latter contained a mess of discarded records.
"Better than nothing at all," he muttered.