"Don't you want to come out to Westerton and see the mechanism?"
"Uh-uh! Less we do to arouse suspicion, the better. I'll wire you, of course, when I find something. Have you got a gun?"
"Gun?" Morrow started. "No. Why should I?"
"Good." Smitty grinned lazily. "Don't carry one. They're too damned dangerous."
"I agree," Morrow said quietly. "It hadn't even occurred to me."
The train rattled and squealed through the hot summer afternoon, dust and foul-smelling smoke drifting back through the open coach windows. Morrow huddled in the corner of his seat and stared miserably out at the moving landscape.
Have you got a gun? The words echoed through his mind. Of course he didn't have a gun. He had never thought about it. Why should he need a gun?
But the answer was obvious. The secret of the gravity-control mechanism was precious.
Certain individuals, should they learn about it, would stop at nothing to get it. Including murder.