Herkimer walked forward, stood face to face with Sutton.
"You have to trust me, sir. You said this morning I'd put the ringer on you, but I never would. I was with you from the very first."
"But the girl," said Sutton.
"Eva's with you, too, sir. We started out to find you as soon as we found out, but we were too late to catch you. Eva's waiting with the ship."
"A ship," said Sutton. "A ship and everything."
"It's your own ship, sir," said Herkimer. "The one you got from Benton. The ship that went along with me."
"And you want me to come with you and get into this ship and…"
"I'm sorry, sir," said Herkimer.
He moved so fast that Sutton couldn't do a thing.
He saw the fist coming and he tried to raise his gun. He felt the sudden fury grow cold within his brain and then there was a crushing impact and his head snapped back so that for a moment, before his eyelids closed, he saw the wheel of stars against a spinning sky.