'How in blue hell would I know what they found? I hope they found something. This trip cost us a million bucks.'
'But can't you give me some idea of what they might have found?' persisted Woods. 'Some idea of what Mars is like. Any new ideas.'
Dr. Gilmer wrangled the cigar viciously.
'And have you spread it all over the front page,' he said. 'Spin something out of my own head just because you chaps are too impatient to wait for the actual data. Not by a damn sight. You reporters get my goat sometimes.'
'Ah, Doc, give us something,' pleaded Gary Henderson, staff man for the Star.
'Sure,' said Don Buckley, of the Spaceways. 'What do you care? You can always say we misquoted you. It wouldn't be the first time.'
Gilmer gestured toward the official welcoming committee that stood a short distance away.
'Why don't you get the mayor to say something, boys?' he suggested. 'The mayor is always ready to say something.'
'Sure,' said Gary, 'but it never adds up to anything. We've had the mayor's face on the front page so much lately that he thinks he owns the paper.'
'Have you any idea why they haven't radioed us?' asked