Blindly he wormed upward in the dark pipe until he came to the place where a branch tube led horizontally into the second cabin-deck, his goal.
Now he began to count the branch tubes that led off into the separate cabins. Two branches further should be the tube leading to Jurk Usk's cabin. And Jurk Usk, no matter how diabolical his ingenuity, would never expect death to come to him through the ventilator!
* * *
Stealthily Crane inched forward and into the second branch tube. At its end was a light grating. Crane peered down through this into the dark cabin of the Jovian, located the dark bulk of the bunk.
Crane gently opened the grating and dropped soundlessly into the cabin. As he landed, Jurk Usk awoke!
Like a wildcat, the TSS man sprang. As the Jovian sat up, the club fell on his head and he sank back, stunned.
Swiftly Crane tore strips from the blankets and bound and gagged the man of Jupiter. Then he turned on the lights and looked around the cabin, his heart beating rapidly.
"He must have the brain somewhere in the cabin," Crane told himself as he started a swift search.
Ten minutes later he stopped, thunderstruck by the results of his search.
"Good God, the brain isn't here! Then Jurk Usk isn't the killer, after all!"