They ought
to be in in about two hundred and fifty hours. I thought it would be
safer all around to let Gerrit run loose till then. There's no place
he could go.
"What I didn't realize, at the time, was what a human H-bomb this man
Murell would turn into. Then everything blew up at once. Finally, I
was left with the choice of helping Gerrit escape from Hunters' Hall
or having him lynched before I could arrest him." He turned to
Kivelson. "In the light of what you knew, I don't blame you for
calling me a dirty traitor."
"But how did I know..." Kivelson began.
"That's right. You weren't supposed to. That was before you found out.
You ought to have heard what Gerrit and Belsher--as far as I know,
that is his real name--called me after they found out, when they got
out of that jeep and Captain Courtland's men snapped the handcuffs on
them. It even shocked a hardened sinner like me."
There was a lot more of it. Bish had managed to get into Hunters' Hall
just about the time Al Devis and his companion were starting the fire
Ravick--Gerrit--had ordered for a diversion. The whole gang was going
to crash out as soon as the fire had attracted everybody away. Bish
led them out onto the Second Level Down, sleep-gassed the lone man in
the jeep, and took them to the spaceport, where the police were
waiting for them.
As soon as I'd gotten everything, I called the _Times_. I'd had my
radio on all the time, and it had been coming in perfectly.
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