Two men alone on a space station - an over-zealous colonel and the civilian who tries to talk him out of dropping three hydogen bombs on Washington DC.

A seductive actress signs up for the maiden flight of a space ship so that she can track down the husband who jilted her.

A fiendishly clever agent infiltrates a top-secret government project and threatens the very existence of Earth.

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The short stories in this book, and when they originally appeared, are:

1. "Tomb Tapper", 1956, Astounding Science Fiction
2. "King of the Hill", 1955, Infinity Science Fiction
3. "Common Time", August 1953, Science Fiction Quarterly
4. "A Work of Art", originally "Art Work", July 1956, Science Fiction Stories
5. "To Pay the Piper", 1956, If - Worlds of Science Fiction
6. "Nor Iron Bars", originally "Detour to the Stars", 1956 and 1957, Infinity Science Fiction
7. "Beep", 1954,
8. "This Earth of Hours", June 1959, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.