does blue cross blue shield medical cover wisdom teeth removal

does blue cross blue shield medical cover wisdom teeth removal

the pirates of ersatzby murray leinster i it was not mere impulsive action when bronhoddan started for the planet walden by stowing away on ... Februari 11, 2017

the pirates of ersatzby murray leinster i it was not mere impulsive action when bronhoddan started for the planet walden by stowing away on a ship that had come to his nativeplanet to hang all his relatives. he'd planned it long before. it was a long-cherished andcarefully worked out scheme. he didn't expect the hanging of his relatives, of course. heknew that they'd act grieved and innocent, and give proof that they were simple peopleleading blameless lives. they'd make their would-be executioners feel ashamed and apologeticfor having thought evil of them, and as soon as the strangers left they'd return to theirnormal way of life, which was piracy. but

while this was going on, bron hoddan stowedaway on the menacing vessel. presently he arrived at its home world. but his ambitionwas to reach walden, so he set about getting there. it took a long time because he hadto earn ship-passage from one solar system to another, but he held to his idea. waldenwas the most civilized planet in that part of the galaxy. on walden, hoddan intended,in order (a) to achieve splendid things as an electronic engineer, (b) to grow satisfactorilyrich, (c) to marry a delightful girl, and (d) end his life a great man. but he had tospend two years trying to arrange even the first. on the night before the police broke in thedoor of his room, though, accomplishment seemed

imminent. he went to bed and slept soundly.he was calmly sure that his ambitions were about to be realized. at practically any instanthis brilliance would be discovered and he'd be well-to-do, his friend derec would admirehim, and even nedda would probably decide to marry him right away. she was the delightfulgirl. such prospects made for good sleeping. and walden was a fine world to be sleepingon. outside the capital city its spaceport received shipments of luxuries and raw materialsfrom halfway across the galaxy. its landing grid reared skyward and tapped the planet'sionosphere for power with which to hoist ships to clear space and pluck down others fromemptiness. there was commerce and manufacture and wealth and culture, and walden modestlyadmitted that its standard of living was the

highest in the nurmi cluster. its citizenshad no reason to worry about anything but a supply of tranquilizers to enable them tostand the boredom of their lives. even hoddan was satisfied, as of the moment.on his native planet there wasn't even a landing grid. the few, battered, cobbled ships theinhabitants owned had to take off precariously on rockets. they came back blackened and sometimesmore battered still, and sometimes they were accompanied by great hulls whose crews andpassengers were mysteriously missing. these extra ships had to be landed on their emergencyrockets, and, of course, couldn't take off again, but they always vanished quickly justthe same. and the people of zan, on which hoddan had been born, always affected innocentindignation when embattled other spacecraft

came and furiously demanded that they be produced. there were some people who said that all theinhabitants of zan were space pirates and ought to be hung and compared with such aplanet, walden seemed a very fine place indeed. so on a certain night bron hoddan went confidentlyto bed and slept soundly until three hours after sunrise. then the police broke in hisdoor. they made a tremendous crash in doing it,but they were in great haste. the noise waked hoddan, and he blinked his eyes open. beforehe could stir, four uniformed men grabbed him and dragged him out of bed. they searchedhim frantically for anything like a weapon. then they stood him against a wall with twostun-pistols on him, and the main body of

cops began to tear his room apart, lookingfor something he could not guess. then his friend derec came hesitantly in the door andlooked at him remorsefully. he wrung his hands. "i had to do it, bron," he said agitatedly."i couldn't help doing it!" hoddan blinked at him. he was dazed. thingsdidn't become clearer when he saw that a cop had slit open his pillow and was sifting itscontents through his fingers. another cop was ripping the seams of his mattress to lookinside. somebody else was going carefully through a little pile of notes that neddahad written, squinting at them as if he were afraid of seeing something he'd wish he hadn't. "what's happened?" asked hoddan blankly. "what'sthis about?"

derec said miserably: "you killed someone, bron. an innocent man!you didn't mean to, but you did, and ... it's terrible!" "me kill somebody? that's ridiculous!" protestedhoddan. "they found him outside the powerhouse," saidderec bitterly. "outside the mid-continent station that you—" "mid-continent? oh!" hoddan was relieved.it was amazing how much he was relieved. he'd had an unbelieving fear for a moment thatsomebody might have found out he'd been born and raised on zan—which would have ruinedeverything. it was almost impossible to imagine,

but still it was a great relief to find outhe was only suspected of a murder he hadn't committed. and he was only suspected becausehis first great achievement as an electronic engineer had been discovered. "they foundthe thing at mid-continent, eh? but i didn't kill anybody. and there's no harm done. thething's been running two weeks, now. i was going to the power board in a couple of days."he addressed the police. "i know what's up, now," he said. "give me some clothes and let'sgo get this straightened out." a cop waved a stun-pistol at him. "one word out of line, and—pfft!" "don't talk, bron!" said derec in panic. "justkeep quiet! it's bad enough! don't make it

worse!" a cop handed hoddan a garment. he put it on.he became aware that the cop was scared. so was derec. everybody in the room was scaredexcept himself. hoddan found himself incredulous. people didn't act this way on super-civilized,highest-peak-of-culture walden. "who'd i kill?" he demanded. "and why?" "you wouldn't know him, bron," said derecmournfully. "you didn't mean to do murder. but it's only luck that you killed only himinstead of everybody!" "everybody—" hoddan stared. "no more talk!" snapped the nearest cop. histeeth were chattering. "keep quiet or else!"

hoddan shut up. he watched—dressing thewhile as his clothing was inspected and then handed to him—while the cops completed theexamination of his room. they were insanely thorough, though hoddan hadn't the least ideawhat they might be looking for. when they began to rip up the floor and pull down thewalls, the other cops led him outside. there was a fleet of police trucks in theshaded street outdoors. they piled him in one, and four cops climbed after him, keepingstun-pistols trained on him during the maneuver. out of the corner of his eye he saw derecclimbing into another truck. the entire fleet sped away together. the whole affair had beentaken with enormous seriousness by the police. traffic was detoured from their route. whenthey swung up on an elevated expressway, with

raised-up trees on either side, there wasno other vehicle in sight. they raced on downtown. they rolled off the expressway. they rolleddown a cleared avenue. hoddan recognized the detention building. its gate swung wide. thetruck he rode in went inside. the gate closed. the other trucks went away—rapidly. hoddanalighted and saw that the grim gray wall of the courtyard had a surprising number of guardsmustered to sweep the open space with gunfire if anybody made a suspicious movement. he shook his head. nobody had mentioned zan,so this simply didn't make sense. his conscience was wholly clear except about his native planet.this was insanity! he went curiously into the building and into the hearing room. hisguards, there, surrendered him to courtroom

guards and went away with almost hystericalhaste. nobody wanted to be near him. hoddan stared about. the courtroom was highlyinformal. the justice sat at an ordinary desk. there were comfortable chairs. the air wasclean. the atmosphere was that of a conference room in which reasonable men could discussdifferences of opinion in calm leisure. only on a world like walden would a prisoner broughtin by police be dealt with in such surroundings. derec came in by another door, with a manhoddan recognized as the attorney who'd represented nedda's father in certain past interviews.there'd been no mention of nedda as toying with the thought of marrying hoddan then,of course. it had been strictly business. nedda's father was chairman of the power board,a director of the planetary association of

manufacturers, a committeeman of the banker'sleague, and other important things. hoddan had been thrown out of his offices severaltimes. he now scowled ungraciously at the lawyer who had ordered him thrown out. hesaw derec wringing his hands. an agitated man in court uniform came to hisside. "i'm the citizen's representative," he saiduneasily. "i'm to look after your interests. do you want a personal lawyer?" "why?" asked hoddan. he felt splendidly confident. "the charges— do you wish a psychiatricexamination—claiming no responsibility?" asked the representative anxiously. "it might... it might really be best—"

"i'm not crazy," said hoddan, "though thislooks like it." the citizen's representative spoke to thejustice. "sir, the accused waives psychiatric examination,without prejudice to a later claim of no responsibility." nedda's father's attorney watched with blandeyes. hoddan said impatiently: "let's get started so this will make somesense! i know what i've done. what monstrous crime am i charged with?" "the charges against you," said the justicepolitely, "are that on the night of three twenty-seven last, you, bron hoddan, enteredthe fenced-in grounds surrounding the mid-continent power receptor station. it is charged thatyou passed two no-admittance signs. you arrived

at a door marked 'authorized personnel only.'you broke the lock of that door. inside, you smashed the power receptor taking broadcastpower from the air. this power receptor converts broadcast power for industrial units by whichtwo hundred thousand men are employed. you smashed the receptor, imperiling their employment."the justice paused. "do you wish to challenge any of these charges as contrary to fact?" the citizen's representative said hurriedly: "you have the right to deny any of them, ofcourse." "why should i?" asked hoddan. "i did them!but what's this about me killing somebody? why'd they tear my place apart looking forsomething? who'd i kill, anyhow?"

"don't bring that up!" pleaded the citizen'srepresentative. "please don't bring that up! you will be much, much better off if thatis not mentioned!" "but i didn't kill anybody!" insisted hoddan. "nobody's said a word about it," said thecitizen's representative, jittering. "let's not have it in the record! the record hasto be published." he turned to the justice. "sir, the facts are conceded as stated." "then," said the justice to hoddan, "do youchoose to answer these charges at this time?" "why not?" asked hoddan. "of course!" "proceed," said the justice.

hoddan drew a deep breath. he didn't understandwhy a man's death, charged to him, was not mentioned. he didn't like the scared way everybodylooked at him. but— "about the burglary business," he said confidently."what did i do in the power station before i smashed the receptor?" the justice looked at nedda's father's attorney. "why," said that gentleman amiably, "speakingfor the power board as complainant, before you smashed the standard receptor you connecteda device of your own design across the power-leads. it was a receptor unit of an apparently originalpattern. it appears to have been a very interesting device."

"i'd offered it to the power board," saidhoddan, with satisfaction, "and i was thrown out. you had me thrown out! what did it do?" "it substituted for the receptor you smashed,"said the attorney. "it continued to supply some two hundred million kilowatts for themid-continent industrial area. in fact, your crime was only discovered because the originalreceptor—naturally—had to be set to draw peak power at all times, with the unused powerwasted by burning carbon. your device adjusted to the load and did not burn carbon. so whenthe attendants went to replace the supposedly burned carbon and found it unused, they discoveredwhat you had done." "it saved carbon, then," said hoddan triumphantly."that means it saved money. i saved the power

board plenty while that was connected. theywouldn't believe i could. now they know. i did!" the justice said: "irrelevant. you have heard the charges. inlegal terms, you are charged with burglary, trespass, breaking and entering, unlawfulentry, malicious mischief, breach of the peace, sabotage, and endangering the employment ofcitizens. discuss the charges, please!" "i'm telling you!" protested hoddan. "i offeredthe thing to the power board. they said they were satisfied with what they had and wouldn'tlisten. so i proved what they wouldn't listen to! that receptor saved them ten thousandcredits worth of carbon a week! it'll save

half a million credits a year in every powerstation that uses it! if i know the power board, they're going right on using it whilethey arrest me for putting it to work!" the courtroom, in its entirety, visibly shivered. "aren't they?" demanded hoddan belligerently. "they are not," said the justice, tight-lipped."it has been smashed in its turn. it has even been melted down." "then look at my patents!" insisted hoddan."it's stupid—" "the patent records," said the justice withunnecessary vehemence, "have been destroyed. your possessions have been searched for copies.nobody will ever look at your drawings again—not

if they are wise!" "wha-a-at?" demanded hoddan incredulously."wha-a-at?" "i will amend the record of this hearing beforeit is published," said the justice shakily. "i should not have made that comment. i askpermission of the citizen's representative to amend." "granted," said the representative beforehe had finished. the justice said quickly: "the-charges-have-been-admitted-by-the-defendant.since-the-complainant-does-not-wish-punitive-action-taken-against-him—" "he'd be silly if he did," grunted hoddan.

"and-merely-wishes-security-against-repetition-of-the-offense,i-rule-that-the-defendant-may-be-released-upon-posting-suitable-bond-for -good-behavior-in-the-future. that-is, he-will-be-required-to-post-bond-which-will-be-forfeited-if-he-ever-again-enters-a-power-station -enclosure-passes-no-trespassing-signs-ignores-no-admittance-signs-and/or-smashes-apparatus-belonging-to-the-complainant." "all right," said hoddan indignantly. "i'llraise it somehow. if they're too stupid to save money— how much bond?" "the-court-will-take-it-under-advisement-and-will-notify-the-defendant-within-the-customary-two-hours," said the justice at top speed. he swallowed. "the-defendant-will-be-kept-in-close-confinement-until-the-bond-is-posted. the-hearing-is-ended." he did not look at hoddan. courtroom guardsput stun-pistols against hoddan's body and ushered him out.

presently his friend derec came to see himin the tool-steel cell in which he had been placed. derec looked white and stricken. "i'm in trouble because i'm your friend, bron,"he said miserably, "but i asked permission to explain things to you. after all, i causedyour arrest. i urged you not to connect up your receptor without permission!" "i know," growled hoddan, "but there are somepeople so stupid you have to show them everything. i didn't realize that there are people sostupid you can't show them anything." "you ... showed something you didn't intend,"said derec miserably. "bron, i ... i have to tell you. when they went to charge thecarbon bins at the power station, they ... they

found a dead man, bron!" hoddan sat up. "what's that?" "your machine—killed him. he was outsidethe building at the foot of a tree. your receptor killed him through a stone wall! it brokehis bones and killed him.... bron—" derec wrung his hands. "at some stage of power-drainyour receptor makes deathrays!" hoddan had had a good many shocks today. whenderec arrived, he'd been incredulously comparing the treatment he'd received and the panicabout him, with the charges made against him in court. they didn't add up. this new, previouslyundisclosed item left him speechless. he goggled

at derec, who fairly wept. "don't you see?" asked derec pleadingly. "that'swhy i had to tell the police it was you. we can't have deathrays! the police can't letanybody go free who knows how to make them! this is a wonderful world, but there are lotsof crackpots. they'll do anything! the police daren't let it even be suspected that deathrayscan be made! that's why you weren't charged with murder. people all over the planet wouldstart doing research, hoping to satisfy all their grudges by committing suicide for alltheir enemies with themselves! for the sake of civilization your secret has to be suppressed—andyou with it. it's terrible for you, bron, but there's nothing else to do!"

hoddan said dazedly: "but i only have to put up a bond to be released!" "the ... the justice," said derec tearfully,"didn't name it in court, because it would have to be published. but he's set your bondat fifty million credits! nobody could raise that for you, bron! and with the reason forit what it is, you'll never be able to get it reduced." "but anybody who looks at the plans of thereceptor will know it can't make deathrays!" protested hoddan blankly. "nobody will look," said derec tearfully."anybody who knows how to make it will have

to be locked up. they checked the patent examiners.they've forgotten. nobody dared examine the device you had working. they'd be jailed ifthey understood it! nobody will ever risk learning how to make deathrays—not on aworld as civilized as this, with so many people anxious to kill everybody else. you have tobe locked up forever, bron. you have to!" hoddan said inadequately: "oh." "i beg your forgiveness for having you arrested,"said derec in abysmal sorrow, "but i couldn't do anything but tell—" hoddan stared at his cell wall. derec wentaway weeping. he was an admirable, honorable,

not-too-bright young man who had been hoddan'sonly friend. hoddan stared blankly at nothing. as an event,it was preposterous, and yet it was wholly natural. when in the course of human eventssomebody does something that puts somebody else to the trouble of adjusting the numbroutine of his life, the adjustee is resentful. the richer he is and the more satisfactoryhe considers his life, the more resentful he is at any change, however minute. and ofall the changes which offend people, changes which require them to think are most disliked. the high brass in the power board consideredthat everything was moving smoothly. there was no need to consider new devices. hoddan'sdrawings and plans had simply never been bothered

with, because there was no recognized needfor them. and when he forced acknowledgment that his receptor worked, the unwelcome demonstrationwas highly offensive in itself. it was natural, it was inevitable, it should have been infalliblycertain that any possible excuse for not thinking about the receptor would be seized upon. anda single dead man found near the operating demonstrator.... if one assumed that the demonstratorhad killed him,—why one could react emotionally, feel vast indignation, frantically commandthat the device and its inventor be suppressed together, and go on living happily withoutdoing any thinking or making any other change in anything at all. hoddan was appalled. now that it had happened,he could see that it had to. the world of

walden was at the very peak of human culture.it had arrived at so splendid a plane of civilization that nobody could imagine any improvement—unlessa better tranquilizer could be designed to make it more endurable. nobody ever reallywants anything he didn't think of for himself. nobody can want anything he doesn't know exists—orthat he can't imagine to exist. on walden nobody wanted anything, unless it was relieffrom the tedium of ultra-civilized life. hoddan's electronic device did not fill a human need;only a technical one. it had, therefore, no value that would make anybody hospitable toit. and hoddan would spend his life in jail forfailing to recognize the fact. he revolted, immediately. he wanted something!he wanted out. and because he was that kind

of man he put his mind to work devising somethinghe wanted, simply and directly, without trying to get it by furnishing other people withwhat they turned out not to want. he set about designing his escape. with his enforced changein viewpoint, he took the view that he must seem, at least, to give his captors and jailersand—as he saw it—his persecutors what they wanted. they would be pleased to have him dead, providedtheir consciences were clear. he built on that as a foundation. very shortly before nightfall he performedcertain cryptic actions. he unraveled threads from his shirt and put them aside. there wouldbe a vision-lens in the ceiling of his cell,

and somebody would certainly notice what hedid. he made a light. he put the threads in his mouth, set fire to his mattress, and laiddown calmly upon it. the mattress was of excellent quality. it would smell very badly as it smoldered. it did. lying flat, he kicked convulsivelyfor a few seconds. he looked like somebody who had taken poison. then he waited. it was a rather long time before his jailercame down the cell corridor, dragging a fire hose. hoddan had been correct in assumingthat he was watched. his actions had been those of a man who'd anticipated a possibleneed to commit suicide, and who'd had poison in a part of his shirt for convenience. thejailer did not hurry, because if the inventor

of a deathray committed suicide, everybodywould feel better. hoddan had been allowed a reasonable time in which to die. he seemed impressively dead when the jaileropened his cell door, dragged him out, removed the so-far-unscorched other furniture, andset up the fire hose to make an aerosol fog which would put out the fire. he went backto the corridor to wait for the fire to be extinguished. hoddan crowned him with a stool, feeling anunexpected satisfaction in the act. the jailer collapsed. he did not carry keys. the system was forhim to be let out of this corridor by a guard

outside. hoddan growled and took the firehose. he turned its nozzle back to make a stream instead of a mist. water came out atfour hundred pounds pressure. he smashed open the corridor door with it. he strolled throughand bowled over a startled guard with the same stream. he took the guard's stun-pistol.he washed open another door leading to the courtyard. he marched out, washed down twoguards who sighted him, and took the trouble to flush them across the pavement until theywedged in a drain opening. then he thoughtfully reset the hose to fill the courtyard withfog, climbed into the driver's seat of the truck that had brought him here—it was probablythe same one—and smashed through the gateway to the street outside. behind him, the courtyardfilled with dense white mist.

he was free, but only temporarily. aroundhim lay the capital city of walden—the highest civilization in this part of the galaxy. treeslined its ways. towers rose splendidly toward the skies, with thousands of less ambitiousstructures in between. there were open squares and parkways and malls, and it did not smelllike a city at all. but he wasn't loose three minutes before the communicator in the trucksquawked the all-police alarm for him. it was to be expected. all the city wouldshortly be one enormous man-trap, set to catch bron hoddan. there was only one place on theplanet, in fact, where he could be safe—and he wouldn't be safe there if he'd been officiallycharged with murder. but since the police had tactfully failed to mention murder, hecould get at least breathing-time by taking

refuge in the interstellar embassy. he headed for it, bowling along splendidly.the police truck hummed on its way for half a mile; three-quarters. the great open squarebefore the embassy became visible. the embassy was not that of a single planet, of course.by pure necessity every human-inhabited world was independent of all others, but the interstellardiplomatic service represented humanity at large upon each individual globe. its ambassadorwas the only person hoddan could even imagine as listening to him, and that because he camefrom off-planet, as hoddan did. but he mainly counted upon a breathing-space in the embassy,during which to make more plans as yet unformed and unformable. he began, though, to see somevirtues in the simple, lawless, piratical

world in which he had spent his childhood. another police truck rushed frantically towardhim down a side street. stun-pistols made little pinging noises against the body ofhis vehicle. he put on more speed, but the other truck overtook him. it ranged alongside,its occupants waving stern commands to halt. and then, just before it swerved to forcehim off the highway, he swung instead and drove it into a tree. it crashed thunderously.one of his own wheels collapsed. he drove on with the crumpled wheel producing an up-and-downmotion that threatened to make him seasick. then he heard yelling behind him. the copshad piled out of the truck and were in pursuit on foot.

the tall, rough-stone wall of the embassywas visible, now, beyond the monument to the first settlers of walden. he leaped to theground and ran. stun-pistol bolts, a little beyond their effective range, stung like fire.they spurred him on. the gate of the embassy was closed. he boltedaround the corner and swarmed up the conveniently rugged stones of the wall. he was well aloftbefore the cops spotted him. then they fired at him industriously and the charges crackledall around him. but he'd reached the top and had both armsover the parapet before a charge hit his legs and stunned them—paralyzed them. he hungfast, swearing at his bad luck. then hands grasped his wrists. a white-hairedman appeared on the other side of the parapet.

he took a good, solid grip, and heaved. hedrew hoddan over the breast-high top of the wall and let him down to the walkway insideit. "a near thing, that!" said the white-hairedman pleasantly. "i was taking a walk in the garden when i heard the excitement. i gotto the wall-top just in time." he paused, and added, "i do hope you're not just a commonmurderer with the police after him! we can't offer asylum to such—only a breathing-spaceand a chance to start running again. but if you're a political offender—" hoddan began to try to rub sensation and usefulnessback into his legs. feeling came back, and was not pleasant.

"i'm the interstellar ambassador," said thewhite-haired man politely. "my name," said hoddan bitterly, "is bronhoddan and i'm framed for trying to save the power board some millions of credits a year!"then he said more bitterly: "if you want to know, i ran away from zan to try to be a civilizedman and live a civilized life. it was a mistake! i'm to be permanently jailed for using mybrains!" the ambassador cocked his head thoughtfullyto one side. "zan?" he said. "the name hoddan fits to thatsomehow. oh, yes! space-piracy! people say the people of zan capture and loot a dozenor so ships a year, only there's no way to prove it on them. and there's a man namedhoddan who's supposed to head a particularly

ruffianly gang." "my grandfather," said hoddan defiantly. "whatare you going to do about it? i'm outlawed! i've defied the planetary government! i'mdisreputable by descent, and worst of all i've tried to use my brains!" "deplorable!" said the ambassador mildly."i don't mean outlawry is deplorable, you understand, or defiance of the government,or being disreputable. but trying to use one's brains is bad business! a serious offense!are your legs all right now? then come on down with me and i'll have you given somedinner and some fresh clothing and so on. offhand," he added amiably, "it would seemthat using one's brains would be classed as

a political offense rather than a criminalone on walden. we'll see." hoddan gaped up at him. "you mean there's a possibility that—" "of course!" said the ambassador in surprise."you haven't phrased it that way, but you're actually a rebel. a revolutionist. you defyauthority and tradition and governments and such things. naturally the interstellar diplomaticservice is inclined to be on your side. what do you think it's for?"ii in something under two hours hoddan was usheredinto the ambassador's office. he'd been refreshed, his torn clothing replaced by more respectablegarments, and the places where stun-pistols

had stung him soothed by ointments. but, moreimportant, he'd worked out and firmly adopted a new point of view. he'd been a misfit at home on zan becausehe was not contented with the humdrum and monotonous life of a member of a space-piratecommunity. piracy was a matter of dangerous take-offs in cranky rocket-ships, to be followedby weeks or months of tedious and uncomfortable boredom in highly unhealthy re-breathed air.no voyage ever contained more than ten seconds of satisfactory action—and all space-fightingtook place just out of the atmosphere of a possibly embattled planet, because you couldn'tintercept a ship at cruising speed between the stars. regardless of the result of thefighting, one had to get away fast when it

was over, lest overwhelming force swarm upfrom the nearby world. it was intolerably devoid of anything an ambitious young manwould want. even when one had made a good prize—withthe lifeboats darting frantically for ground—and after one got back to zan with a capturedship, even then there was little satisfaction in a piratical career. zan had not a largepopulation. piracy couldn't support a large number of people. zan couldn't attempt todefend itself against even single heavily-armed ships that sometimes came in passionate resolveto avenge the disappearance of a rich freighter or a fast new liner. so the people of zan,to avoid hanging, had to play innocent. they had to be convincingly simple, harmless folkwho cultivated their fields and led quiet,

blameless lives. they might loot, but theyhad to hide their booty where investigators would not find it. they couldn't really benefitby it. they had to build their own houses and make their own garments and grow theirown food. so life on zan was dull. piracy was not profitable in the sense that one couldlive well by it. it simply wasn't a trade for a man like hoddan. so he'd abandoned it. he'd studied electronicsin books from looted passenger-ship libraries. within months after arrival on a law-abidingplanet, he was able to earn a living in electronics as an honest trade. and that was unsatisfactory. law-abiding communitieswere no more thrilling or rewarding than piratical

ones. a payday now and then didn't make upfor the tedium of labor. even when one had money there wasn't much to do with it. onwalden, to be sure, the level of civilization was so high that many people needed psychiatrictreatment to stand it, and neurotics vastly outnumbered more normal folk. and on waldenelectronics was only a trade like piracy, and no more fun. he should have known it would be this way.his grandfather had often discussed this frustration in human life. "us humans," it was his grandfather's habitto say, "don't make sense! there's some of us that work so hard they're too tired toenjoy life. there's some that work so hard

at enjoying it that they don't get no funout of it. and the rest of us spend our lives complainin' that there ain't any fun in itanyhow. the man that over all has the best time of any is one that picks out somethinghe hasn't got a chance to do, and spends his life raisin' hell because he's stopped fromdoing it. when"—and here hoddan's grandfather tended to be emphatic—"he wouldn't thinkmuch of it if he could!" what hoddan craved, of course, was a senseof achievement, of doing things worth doing, and doing them well. technically there wereopportunities all around him. he'd developed one, and it would save millions of creditsa year if it were adopted. but nobody wanted it. he'd tried to force its use, he was introuble, and now he could complain justly

enough, but despite his grandfather he wasnot the happiest man he knew. the ambassador received him with a cordialwave of the hand. "things move fast," he said cheerfully. "youweren't here half an hour before there was a police captain at the gate. he explainedthat an excessively dangerous criminal had escaped jail and been seen to climb the embassywall. he offered very generously to bring some men in and capture you and take you away—withmy permission, of course. he was shocked when i declined." "i can understand that," said hoddan. "by the way," said the ambassador. "youngmen like yourself— is there a girl involved

in this?" hoddan considered. "a girl's father," he acknowledged, "is thereal complainant against me." "does he complain," asked the ambassador,"because you want to marry her, or because you don't?" "neither," hoddan told him. "she hasn't quitedecided that i'm worth defying her rich father for." "good!" said the ambassador. "it can't betoo bad a mess while a woman is being really practical. i've checked your story. allowingfor differences of viewpoint, it agrees with

the official version. i've ruled that youare a political refugee, and so entitled to sanctuary in the embassy. and that's that." "thank you, sir," said hoddan. "there's no question about the crime," observedthe ambassador, "or that it is primarily political. you proposed to improve a technical processin a society which considers itself beyond improvement. if you'd succeeded, the ideaof change would have spread, people now poor would have gotten rich, people now rich wouldhave gotten poor, and you'd have done what all governments are established to prevent.so you'll never be able to walk the streets of this planet again in safety. you've scaredpeople."

"yes, sir," said hoddan. "it's been an unpleasantsurprise to them, to be scared." the ambassador put the tips of his fingerstogether. "do you realize," he asked, "that the wholepurpose of civilization is to take the surprises out of life, so one can be bored to death?that a culture in which nothing unexpected ever happens is in what is called its goldenage? that when nobody can even imagine anything happening unexpectedly, that they later fondlyrefer to that period as the good old days?" "i hadn't thought of it in just those words,sir—" "it is one of the most-avoided facts of life,"said the ambassador. "government, in the local or planetary sense of the word, is an organizationfor the suppression of adventure. taxes are,

in part, the insurance premiums one pays forprotection against the unpredictable. and you have offended against everything thatis the foundation of a stable and orderly and damnably tedious way of life—againstcivilization, in fact." hoddan frowned. "yet you've granted me asylum—" "naturally!" said the ambassador. "the diplomaticservice works for the welfare of humanity. that doesn't mean stuffiness. a golden agein any civilization is always followed by collapse. in ancient days savages came andcamped outside the walls of super-civilized towns. they were unwashed, unmannerly, andunsanitary. super-civilized people refused

even to think about them! so presently thesavages stormed the city walls and another civilization went up in flames." "but now," objected hoddan, "there are nosavages." "they invent themselves," the ambassador toldhim. "my point is that the diplomatic service cherishes individuals and causes which battlestuffiness and complacency and golden ages and monstrous things like that. not thieves,of course. they're degradation, like body lice. but rebels and crackpots and revolutionarieswho prevent hardening of the arteries of commerce and furnish wholesome exercise to the bodypolitic—they're worth cherishing!" "i ... think i see, sir," said hoddan.

"i hope you do," said the ambassador. "myaction on your behalf is pure diplomatic policy. to encourage the dissatisfied is to insureagainst universal satisfaction—which is lethal. walden is in a bad way. you are themost encouraging thing that has happened here in a long time. and you're not a native." "no-o-o," agreed hoddan. "i come from zan." "never mind." the ambassador turned to a stellaratlas. "consider yourself a good symptom, and valued as such. if you could start a contagion,you'd deserve well of your fellow citizens. savages can always invent themselves. butenough of apology from me. let us set about your affairs." he consulted the atlas. "wherewould you like to go, since you must leave

walden?" "not too far, sir—" "the girl, eh?" the ambassador did not smile.he ran his finger down a page. "the nearest inhabited worlds, of course, are krim anddarth. krim is a place of lively commercial activity, where an electronics engineer shouldeasily find employment. it is said to be progressive and there is much organized research—" "i wouldn't want to be a kept engineer, sir,"said hoddan apologetically. "i'd rather ... well ... putter on my own." "impractical, but sensible," commented theambassador. he turned a page. "there's darth.

its social system is practically feudal. it'stechnically backward. there's a landing grid, but space exports are skins and metal ingotsand practically nothing else. there is no broadcast power. strangers find the localcustoms difficult. there is no town larger than twenty thousand people, and few approachthat size. most settled places are mere villages near some feudal castle, and roads are sofew and bad that wheeled transport is rare." he leaned back and said in a detached voice: "i had a letter from there a couple of monthsago. it was rather arrogant. the writer was one don loris, and he explained that his dignitywould not let him make a commercial offer, but an electronic engineer who put himselfunder his protection would not be the loser.

he signed himself prince of this, lord ofthat, baron of the other thing and claimant to the dukedom of something else. are youinterested? no kings on darth, just feudal chiefs." hoddan thought it over. "i'll go to darth," he decided. "it's boundto be better than zan, and it can't be worse than walden." the ambassador looked impassive. an embassyservant came in and offered an indoor communicator. the ambassador put it to his ear. after amoment he said: "show him in." he turned to hoddan. "you didkick up a storm! the minister of state, no

less, is here to demand your surrender. i'llcounter with a formal request for an exit-permit. i'll talk to you again when he leaves." hoddan went out. he paced up and down theother room into which he was shown. darth wouldn't be in a golden age! he was wisernow than he'd been this same morning. he recognized that he'd made mistakes. now he could seerather ruefully how completely improbable it was that anybody could put across a technicaldevice merely by proving its value, without making anybody want it. he shook his headregretfully at the blunder. the ambassador sent for him. "i've had a pleasant time," he told hoddangenially. "there was a beautiful row. you've

really scared people, hoddan! you deservewell of the republic! every government and every person needs to be thoroughly terrifiedoccasionally. it limbers up the brain." "yes, sir," said hoddan. "i've—" "the planetary government," said the ambassadorwith relish, "insists that you have to be locked up with the key thrown away. becauseyou know how to make deathrays. i said it was nonsense, and you were a political refugeein sanctuary. the minister of state said the cabinet would consider removing you forciblyfrom the embassy if you weren't surrendered. i said that if the embassy was violated noship would clear for walden from any other civilized planet. they wouldn't like losingtheir off-planet trade! then he said that

the government would not give you an exit-permit,and that he would hold me personally responsible if you killed everybody on walden, includinghimself and me. i said he insulted me by suggesting that i'd permit such shenanigans. he saidthe government would take an extremely grave view of my attitude, and i said they wouldbe silly if they did. then he went off with great dignity—but shaking with panic—tothink up more nonsense." "evidently," said hoddan in relief, "you believeme when i say that my gadget doesn't make deathrays." the ambassador looked slightly embarrassed. "to be honest," he admitted, "i've no doubtthat you invented it independently, but they've

been using such a device for half a centuryin the cetis cluster. they've had no trouble." hoddan winced. "did you tell the minister that?" "hardly," said the ambassador. "it would havedone you no good. you're in open revolt and have performed overt acts of violence againstthe police. but also it was impolite enough for me to suggest that the local governmentwas stupid. it would have been most undiplomatic to prove it." hoddan did not feel very proud, just then. "i'm thinking that the cops—quite unofficially—mighttry to kidnap me from the embassy. they'll

deny that they tried, especially if they manageit. but i think they'll try." "very likely," said the ambassador. "we'lltake precautions." "i'd like to make something—not lethal—justin case," said hoddan. "if you can trust me not to make deathrays, i'd like to make agenerator of odd-shaped microwaves. they're described in textbooks. they ionize the airwhere they strike. that's all. they make air a high-resistance conductor. nothing morethan that." the ambassador said: "there was an old-fashioned way to make ozone...."when hoddan nodded, a little surprised, the ambassador said: "by all means go ahead. youshould be able to get parts from your room

vision-receiver. i'll have some tools givenyou." then he added: "diplomacy has to understand the things that control events. once it wassocial position. for a time it was weapons. then it was commerce. now it's technology.but i wonder how you'll use the ionization of air to protect yourself from kidnapers!don't tell me! i'd rather try to guess." he waved his hand in cordial dismissal andan embassy servant showed hoddan to his quarters. ten minutes later another staff man broughthim tools such as would be needed for work on a vision set. he was left alone. he delicately disassembled the set in hisroom and began to put some of the parts together in a novel but wholly rational fashion. thescience of electronics, like the science of

mathematics, had progressed away beyond thepoint where all of it had practical applications. one could spend a lifetime learning thingsthat research had discovered in the past, and industry had never found a use for. onzan, industriously reading pirated books, hoddan hadn't known where utility stopped.he'd kept on learning long after a practical man would have stopped studying to get a payingjob. any electronic engineer could have made thedevice he now assembled. it only needed to be wanted—and apparently he was the firstperson to want it. in this respect it was like the receptor that had gotten him intotrouble. but as he put the small parts together, he felt a certain loneliness. a man hoddan'sage needs to have some girl admire him from

time to time. if nedda had been sitting cross-leggedbefore him, listening raptly while he explained, hoddan would probably have been perfectlyhappy. but she wasn't. it wasn't likely she ever would be. hoddan scowled. inside of an hour he'd made a hand-sized,five-watt, wave-guide projector of waves of eccentric form. in the beam of that projector,air became ionized. air became a high-resistance conductor comparable to nichrome wire, whenand where the projector sent its microwaves. he was wrapping tape about the pistol gripwhen a servant brought him a scribbled note. it had been handed in at the embassy gateby a woman who fled after leaving it. it looked like nedda's handwriting. it read like nedda'sphrasing. it appeared to have been written

by somebody in a highly emotional state. butit wasn't quite—not absolutely—convincing. he went to find the ambassador. he handedover the note. the ambassador read it and raised his eyebrows. "well?" "it could be authentic," admitted hoddan. "in other words," said the ambassador, "youare not sure that it is a booby trap—an invitation to a date with the police?" "i'm not sure," said hoddan. "i think i'dbetter bite. if i have any illusions left after this morning, i'd better find it out.i thought nedda liked me quite a lot."

"i make no comment," observed the ambassador."can i help you in any way?" "i have to leave the embassy," said hoddan,"and there's a practically solid line of police outside the walls. could i borrow some oldclothes, a few pillows, and a length of rope?" half an hour later a rope uncoiled itselfat the very darkest outside corner of the embassy wall. it dangled down to the ground.this was at the rear of the embassy enclosure. the night was bright with stars, and the city'stowers glittered with many lights. but here there was almost complete blackness and thatsilence of a city which is sometimes so companionable. the rope remained hanging from the wall. nolight reached the ground there. the tiny crescent of walden's farthest moon cast an insufficientglow. nothing could be seen by it.

the rope went up, as if it had been loweredmerely to make sure that it was long enough for its purpose. then it descended again.this time a figure dangled at its end. it came down, swaying a little. it reached theblackest part of the shadow at the wall's base. it stayed there. nothing happened. the figure rose swiftly,hauled up in rapid pullings of the rope. then the line came down again and again a figuredescended. but this figure moved. the rope swayed and oscillated. the figure came downa good halfway to the ground. it paused, and then descended with much movement to two-thirdsof the way from the top. there something seemed to alarm it. it beganto rise with violent writhings of the rope.

it climbed— there was a crackling noise. a stun-pistol.the figure seemed to climb more frantically. more cracklings. half a dozen—a dozen sharp,snapping noises. they were stun-pistol charges and there were tiny sparks where they hit.the dangling figure seemed convulsed. it went limp, but it did not fall. more charges pouredinto it. it hung motionless halfway up the wall of the embassy. movements began in the darkness. men appeared,talking in low tones and straining their eyes toward the now motionless figure. they gatheredunderneath it. one went off at a run, carrying a message. someone of authority arrived, panting.there was more low-toned argument. more and

still more men appeared. there were fortyor fifty figures at the base of the wall. one of those figures began to climb the ropehand over hand. he reached the motionless object. he swore in a shocked voice. he wasshushed from below. he let the figure drop. it made next to no sound when it landed. then there was a rushing, as the guards aboutthe embassy went furiously back to their proper posts to keep anybody from slipping out twomen remained swearing bitterly over a dummy made of old clothes and pillows. but theirprofanity was in vain. hoddan was then some blocks away. he sufferedpainful doubt about the note ostensibly from nedda. the guards about the embassy wouldhave tried to catch him in any case, but it

did seem very plausible that the note hadbeen sent him to get him to try to get down the wall. on the other hand, a false descentof a palpably dummylike dummy had been plausible, too. he'd drawn all the guards to one spotby his seeming doubt and by testing out their vigilance with a dummy. the only thing improbablein his behavior had been that after testing their vigilance with a dummy, he'd made useof it. a fair distance away, he turned sedately intoa narrow lane between buildings. this paralleled another lane serving the home of a girl friendof nedda's. the note had named the garden behind that other girl's home as a rendezvous.but hoddan was not going to that garden. he wanted to make sure. if the cops had forgedthe note—

he judged his position carefully. if he climbedthis tree,—hm-m-m.... kind of the city-planners of walden to use trees so lavishly—if heclimbed this tree he could look into the garden where nedda in theory waited in tears. heclimbed it. he sat astride a thick limb in scented darkness and considered further. presentlyhe brought out his five-watt projector. there was deepest darkness hereabouts. trees andshrubbery were merely blacker than their surroundings. but there was reason for suspicion. neither in the house of nedda's girl friend,nor in the nearer house between, was there a single lighted window. hoddan adjusted the wave-guide and pressedthe stud of his instrument. he pointed it

carefully into the nearer garden. a man grunted in a surprised tone. there wasa stirring. a man swore startledly. the words seemed inappropriate to a citizen merely breathingthe evening air. hoddan frowned. the note from nedda seemedto have been a forgery. to make sure, he readjusted the wave-guide to project a thin but fan-shapedbeam. he aimed again. painstakingly, he traversed the area in which men would have been postedto jump him, in the event that the note was forged. if nedda were there, she would feelno effect. if police lay in wait, they would notice. at once. they did. a man howled. two men yelled together.somebody bellowed. somebody squealed. someone,

in charge of the flares made ready to givelight for the police, was so startled by a strange sensation that he jerked the cord.an immense, cold-white brilliance appeared. the garden where nedda definitely was notpresent became bathed in incandescence. light spilled over the wall of one garden into thenext and disclosed a squirming mass of police in the nearer garden also. some of them leapedwildly and ungracefully while clawing behind them. some stood still and struggled desperatelyto accomplish something to their rear, while others gazed blankly at them until hoddanswung his instrument their way, also. a man tore off his pants and swarmed overthe wall to get away from something intolerable. others imitated him, save in the directionof their flight. some removed their trousers

before they fled, but others tried to getthem off while fleeing. those last did not fare too well. mostly they stumbled and othermen fell over them, when both fallen and fallen-upon uttered hoarse and profane lamentations—theyhowled to the high heavens. hoddan let the confusion mount past any unscrambling,and then slid down the tree and joined in the rush. with the glare in the air behindhim, he only feigned to stumble over one figure after another. once he grunted as he scorchedhis own fingers. but he came out of the lane with a dozen stun-pistols, mostly uncomfortablywarm, as trophies of the ambush. as they cooled off he stowed them away inhis belt and pockets, strolling away down the tree-lined street. behind him, cops realizedtheir trouserless condition and appealed plaintively

to householders to notify headquarters oftheir state. hoddan did not feel particularly disillusioned,somehow. it occurred to him, even, that this particular event was likely to help him getoff of walden. if he was to leave against the cops' will, he needed to have them atless than top efficiency. and men who have had their pants scorched off them are notapt to think too clearly. hoddan felt a certain confidence increase in his mind. he'd workedthe thing out very nicely. if ionization made air a high-resistance conductor, then an ionizingbeam would make a high-resistance short between the power terminals of a stun-pistol. withthe power a stun-pistol carried, that short would get hot. so would the pistol. it wouldget hot enough, in fact, to scorch cloth in

contact with it. which had happened. if the effect had been produced in the solesof policemen's feet, hoddan would have given every cop a hotfoot. but since they carriedtheir stun-pistols in their hip-pockets— the thought of nedda diminished his satisfaction.the note could be pure forgery, or the police could have learned about it through the treacheryof the servant she sent to the embassy with it. it would be worthwhile to know. he headedtoward the home of her father. if she were loyal to him—why it would complicate thingsconsiderably. but he felt it necessary to find out. he neared the spot where nedda lived. thiswas an especially desirable residential area.

the houses were large and gracefully designed,and the gardens were especially lush. presently he heard music ahead—live music. he wenton. he came to a place where strolling citizens had paused under the trees of the street tolisten to the melody and the sound of voices that accompanied it. and the music and thefestivity was in the house in which nedda dwelt. she was having a party, on the verynight of the day in which he'd been framed for life imprisonment. it was a shock. then there was a rush of vehicles,and police trucks were disgorging cops before the door. they formed a cordon about the house,and some knocked and were admitted in haste. then hoddan nodded dourly to himself.

his escape from the embassy was now known.no less certainly, the failure of the trap nedda's note had baited had been reported.the police were now turning the whole city into a trap for one bron hoddan, and theywere looking first at the most probable places, then they'd search the possible places forhim to be, and by the time that had been accomplished they'd have cops from other cities pouringinto the city and they'd search every square inch of it for him. and certainly and positivelythey'd take the most urgent and infallible precautions to make sure he didn't get backinto the embassy. it was a situation that would have appalledhoddan only that morning. now, though, he only shook his head sadly. he moved on. he'dgotten into trouble by trying to make an industrial

civilization accept something it didn't want—atechnical improvement in a standard electronic device. he'd gotten partly out of troubleby giving his jailers what they definitely desired—the sight of him apparently a suicidein the cell in the detention building. he'd come out of the embassy, again, by givingthe watchers outside a view they urgently desired—a figure secretly descending theembassy wall. he'd indulged himself at the ambuscade, but the way to get back into theembassy.... it was not far from nedda's house to a public-safetykiosk, decoratively placed on a street corner. he entered it. it was unattended, of course.it was simply an out-of-door installation where cops could be summoned or fires reportedor emergencies described by citizens independently

of the regular home communicators. it hadoccurred to hoddan that the planetary authorities would be greatly pleased to hear of a situation,in a place, that would seem to hint at his presence. there were all sorts of public servicesthat would be delighted to operate impressively in their own lines. there were bureaus whichwould rejoice in a chance to show off their efficiency. he used his microwave generator—which atshort enough range would short-circuit anything—upon the apparatus in the kiosk. it was perfectlysimple, if one knew how. he worked with a sort of tender thoroughness, shorting thisitem, shorting that, giving this frantic emergency call, stating that baseless lie. when he wentout of the kiosk he walked briskly toward

an appointment he had made. and presently the murmur of the city at nighthad new sounds added to it. they began as a faint, confused clamor at the edges of thecity. the uproar moved centralward and grew louder as it came. there were clanging bellsand sirens and beeper-horns warning all nonofficial vehicles to keep out of the way. on the raised-upexpressway snorting metal monsters rushed with squealing excitement. on the fragrantlesser streets, small vehicles rushed with proportionately louder howlings. police truckspoured out of their cubbyholes and plunged valiantly through the dark. broadcast-unitssignaled emergency and cut off the air to make the placid ether waves available to authority.

all these noises and all this tumult movedtoward a single point. the outer parts of the city regained their former quiet, savethat there was less music. the broadcasts were off. but the sound of racing vehiclesclamoring for right-of-way grew louder and louder, and more and more peremptory as itconcentrated toward the large open square on which the interstellar embassy faced. fromevery street and avenue fire-fighting equipment poured into that square. in between and behind,hooting loudly for precedence, police trucks accompanied and fore-ran them. emergency vehiclesof all the civic bureaus appeared, all of them with immense conviction of their importance. it was a very large open square, that spacebefore the embassy. from its edge, the monument

to the first settlers in the center lookedsmall. but even that vast plaza filled up with trucks of every imaginable variety, fromthe hose towers which could throw streams of water four hundred feet straight up, tothe miniature trouble-wagons of electricity supply. staff cars of fire and police andsanitary services crowded each other and bumped fenders with tree-surgeon trucks preparedto move fallen trees, and with public-address trucks ready to lend stentorian tones to anyvoice of authority. but there was no situation except that therewas no situation. there was no fire. there was no riot. there were not even stray dogsfor the pound wagons to pursue, nor broken water mains for the water department techniciansto shut off and repair. there was nothing

for anybody to do but ask everybody else whatthe hell they were doing there, and presently to swear at each other for cluttering up theway. the din of arriving horns and sirens had stopped,and a mutter of profanity was developing, when a last vehicle arrived. it was an ambulance,and it came purposefully out of a side avenue and swung toward a particular place as ifit knew exactly what it was about. when its way was blocked, it hooted impatiently forpassage. its lights blinked violently red, demanding clearance. a giant fire-fightingunit pulled aside. the ambulance ran past and hooted at a cluster of police trucks.they made way for it. it blared at a gathering of dismounted, irritated truck personnel.it made its way through them. it moved in

a straight line for the gate of the interstellarembassy. a hundred yards from that gate, its horn blattedirritably at the car of the acting head of municipal police. that car obediently madeway for it. the ambulance rolled briskly up to the verygate of the embassy. there it stopped. a figure got down from the driver's seat and walkedpurposefully in the gate. thereafter nothing happened at all until asecond figure rolled and toppled itself out on the ground from the seat beside the ambulancedriver's. that figure kicked and writhed on the ground. a policeman went to find out whatwas the matter. it was the ambulance driver. not the one who'ddriven the ambulance to the embassy gate,

but the one who should have. he was boundhand and foot and not too tightly gagged. when released he swore vividly while pantingthat he had been captured and bound by somebody who said he was bron hoddan and was in a hurryto get back to the interstellar embassy. there was no uproar. those to whom hoddan'sname had meaning were struck speechless with rage. the fury of the police was even toodeep for tears. but bron hoddan, back in the quarters assignedhim in the embassy, unloaded a dozen cooled-off stun-pistols from his pockets and sent wordto the ambassador that he was back, and that the note ostensibly from nedda had actuallybeen a police trap. getting ready to retire, he reviewed his situation.in some respects it was not too bad. all but

nedda's share in trying to trap him, and havinga party the same night.... he stared morosely at the wall. then he saw, very simply, thatshe mightn't have known even of his arrest. she lived a highly sheltered life. her fathercould have had her kept completely in ignorance.... he cheered immediately. this would be hislast night on walden, if he were lucky, but vague plans already revolved in his mind.yes.... he'd achieve splendid things, he'd grow rich, he'd come back and marry that delightfulgirl, nedda, and end as a great man. already, today, he'd done a number of things worthdoing, and on the whole he'd done them well. iii when dawn broke over the capital city of walden,the sight was appropriately glamorous. there

were shining towers and curving tree-borderedways, above which innumerable small birds flew tumultuously. the dawn, in fact, washeralded by high-pitched chirpings everywhere. during the darkness there had been a deep-tonedhumming sound, audible all over the city. that was the landing grid in operation outat the spaceport, letting down a twenty-thousand-ton liner from rigel, cetis, and the nearer rim.presently it would take off for krim, darth, and the coalsack stars, and if hoddan waslucky he would be on it. but at the earliest part of the day there was only tranquillityover the city and the square and the interstellar embassy. at the gate of the embassy enclosure, staffmembers piled up boxes and bales and parcels

for transport to the spaceport and thenceto destinations whose names were practically songs. there were dispatches to delil, wherethe interstellar diplomatic service had a sector headquarters, and there were packetsof embassy-stamped invoices for lohala and tralee and famagusta. there were boxes forsind and maja, and metal-bound cases for kent. the early explorers of this part of the galaxyhad christened huge suns for little villages and territories back on earth—which lessthan one human being in ten thousand had ever seen. the sound of the stacking of freight parcelswas crisp and distinct in the morning hush. the dew deposited during darkness had notyet dried from the pavement of the square.

damp, unhappy figures loafed nearby. theywere self-evidently secret police, as yet unrelieved after a night's vigil about theembassy's rugged wall. they were sleepy and their clothing stuck soggily to them, andnone of them had had anything warm in his stomach for many hours. they had not, either,anything to look forward to from their superiors. hoddan was again in sanctuary inside the embassythey'd guarded so ineptly through the dark. he'd gotten out without their leave, and madea number of their fellows unwilling to sit down and then made all the police and municipalauthorities ridiculous by the manner of his return. the police guards about the embassywere very positively not in a cheery mood. but one of them saw an embassy servant heknew. he'd stood the man drinks, in times

past, to establish a contact that might beuseful. he summoned a smile and beckoned to that man. the embassy servant came briskly to him, rubbinghis hands after having put a moderately heavy case of documents on top of the waiting pile. "that hoddan," said the plainclothesman, attemptinghearty ruefulness, "he certainly put it over on us last night!" the servant nodded. "look," said the plainclothesman, "there couldbe something in it for you if you ... hm-m-m ... wanted to make a little extra money."

the servant looked regretful. "no chance," he said, "he's leaving today." the plainclothesman jumped. "today?" "for darth," said the embassy servant. "theambassador's shipping him off on the space liner that came in last night." the plainclothesman dithered. "how's he going to get to the spaceport?" "i wouldn't know," said the servant. "they'vefigured out some way. i could use a little

extra money, too." he lingered, but the plainclothesman was staringat the innocent, inviolable parcels about to leave the embassy for distant parts. hetook note of sizes and descriptions. no. not yet. but if hoddan was leaving he had to leavethe embassy. if he left the embassy.... the plainclothesman bolted. he made a breathlessreport by the portable communicator set up for just such use. he told what the embassyservant had said, and the inference to be drawn from it, the suspicions to be entertained—andthere he stopped short. orders came back to him. orders were given in all directions.somebody was going to distinguish himself by catching hoddan, and undercover politicsworked to decide who it should be. even the

job of guard outside the embassy became desirable.so fresh, alert plainclothesmen arrived. they were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and theytook over. weary, hungry men yielded up their posts. they went home. the man who'd gottenthe infallibly certain clue went home too, disgruntled because he wasn't allowed a sharein the credit for hoddan's capture. but he was glad of it later. inside the embassy, hoddan finished his breakfastwith the ambassador. "i'm giving you," said the ambassador, "thatletter to the character on darth. i told you about him. he's some sort of nobleman andhas need of an electronic engineer. on darth they're rare to nonexistent. but his letterwasn't too specific."

"i remember," agreed hoddan. "i'll look himup. thanks." "somehow," said the ambassador, "i cherishunreasonable hopes of you, hoddan. a psychologist would say that your group identification islow and your cyclothymia practically a minus quantity, while your ergic tension is pleasinglyhigh. he'd mean that with reasonable good fortune you will raise more hell than most.i wish you that good fortune. and hoddan—" "yes?" "i don't urge you to be vengeful," explainedthe ambassador, "but i do hope you won't be too forgiving of these characters who'd havejailed you for life. you've scared them badly. it's very good for them. anything more youcan do in that line will be really a kindness,

and as such will positively not be appreciated,but it'll be well worth doing.... i say this because i like the way you plan things. andany time i can be of service—" "thanks," said hoddan, "but i'd better getgoing for the spaceport." he'd write nedda from darth. "i'll get set for it." he rose. the ambassador stood up too. "i like the way you plan things," he repeatedappreciatively. "we'll check over that box." they left the embassy dining room together. it was well after sunrise when hoddan finishedhis breakfast, and the bright and watchful new plainclothesmen were very much on thealert outside. by this time the sunshine had

lost its early ruddy tint, and the trees aboutthe city were vividly green, and the sky had become appropriately blue—as the skies onall human-occupied planets are. there was the beginning of traffic. some was routinemovement of goods and vehicles. but some was special. for example, the trucks which came to carrythe embassy shipment to the spaceport. they were perfectly ordinary trucks, hired in aperfectly ordinary way by the ambassador's secretary. they came trundling across thesquare and into the embassy gate. the ostentatiously loafing plainclothesmen could look in andsee the waiting parcels loaded on them. the first truckload was quite unsuspicious. therewas no package in the lot which could have

held a man in even the most impossibly crampedof positions. but the police took no chances. ten blocksfrom the embassy the cops stopped it and verified the licenses and identities of the driverand his helper. this was a moderately lengthy business. while it went on, plainclothesmenworked over the packages in the truck's body and put stethoscopes to any of more than onecubic foot capacity. they waved the truck on. meanwhile the secondtruck was loading up. and the watching, ostensible loafers saw that nearly the last item to beput on it was a large box which hadn't been visible before. it was carried with some care,and it was marked fragile, and it was put into place and wedged fast with other parcels.

the plainclothesmen looked at each other withanticipatory glee. one of them reported the last large box with almost lyric enthusiasm.when the second truck left the embassy with the large box, a police truck came innocentlyout of nowhere and just happened to be going the same way. ten blocks away, again the truckload of embassy parcels was flagged down and its driver's license and identity was verified.a plainclothesman put a stethoscope on the questionable case. he beamed, and made a suitablesignal. the truck went on, while zestful, machiavelianplans took effect. five blocks farther, an unmarked empty truckcame hurtling out of a side street, sideswiped the truck from the embassy, and went careeningaway down the street without stopping. the

trailing police truck made no attempt at pursuit.instead, it stopped helpfully by the truck which had been hit. a wheel was hopelesslygone. so uniformed police, with conspicuously happy expressions, cleared a space aroundthe stalled truck and stood guard over the parcels under diplomatic seal. with eagerhelpfulness, they sent for other transportation for the embassy's shipment. a sneeze was heard from within the mass ofguarded freight, and the policemen shook hands with each other. when substitute trucks came—therewere two of them—they loaded one high with embassy parcels and sent it off to the spaceportwith their blessing. there remained just one, single, large-sized box to be put on the secondvehicle. they bumped it on the ground, and

a startled grunt came from within. there was an atmosphere of innocent enjoymentall about as the police tenderly loaded this large box on the second truck they'd sentfor, and festooned themselves about it as it trundled away. strangely, it did not headdirectly for the spaceport. the police carefully explained this to each other in loud voices.then some of them were afraid the box hadn't heard, so they knocked on it. the box coughed,and it seemed hilariously amusing to the policemen that the contents of a freight parcel shouldcough. they expressed deep concern and—addressing the box—explained that they were takingit to the detention building, where they would give it some cough medicine.

the box swore at them, despairingly. theyhowled with childish laughter, and assured the box that after they had opened it andgiven it cough medicine they would close it again very carefully—leaving the diplomaticseal unbroken—and deliver it to the spaceport so it could go on its way. the box swore again, luridly. the truck whichcarried it hastened. the box teetered and bumped and jounced with the swift motion ofthe vehicle that carried it and all the police around it. bitter, enraged, and highly unprintablelanguage came from within. the police were charmed. even so early inthe morning they seemed inclined to burst into song. when the detention building gateopened for it, and closed again behind it,

there was a welcoming committee in the courtyard.it included a jailer with a bandaged head and a look of vengeful satisfaction on hisface, and no less than three guards who had been given baths by a high-pressure hose whenbron hoddan departed from his cell. they wore unamiable expressions. and then, while the box swore very bitterly,somebody tenderly loosened a plank—being careful not to disturb the diplomatic seal—andpulled it away with a triumphant gesture. then all the police could look into the box.and they did. then there was dead silence, except for thevoice that came from a two-way communicator set inside.

"and now," said the voice from the box—andonly now did anybody notice what the muffling effect of the boards had hidden, that it wasa speaker-unit which had sworn and coughed and sneezed—"we take our leave of the planetwalden and its happy police force, who wave to us as our space-liner lifts toward theskies. the next sound you hear will be that of their lamentations at our departure." but the next sound was a howl of fury. thepolice were very much disappointed to learn that hoddan hadn't been in the box, but onlyone-half of a two-way communication pair, and that hoddan had coughed and sneezed andsworn at them from the other instrument somewhere else. now he signed off.

the space liner was not lifting off just yet.it was still solidly aground in the center of the landing grid. hoddan had bade farewellto his audience from the floor of the ambassador's ground-car, which at that moment was safelywithin the extra-territorial circle about the spaceship. he turned off the set and gotup and brushed himself off. he got out of the car. the ambassador followed him and shookhis hand. "you have a touch," said the ambassador sedately."you seem inspired at times, hoddan! you have a gift for infuriating constituted authority.you should plot at your art. you may go far!" he shook hands again and watched hoddan walkinto the lift which should raise him—and did raise him—to the entrance port of thespace liner.

twenty minutes later the force fields of thegiant landing grid lifted the liner smoothly out to space. the twenty-thousand-ton vesselwent out to five planetary diameters, where its lawlor drive could take hold of relativelyunstressed space. there the ship jockeyed for line, and then there was that curious,momentary disturbance of all one's sensations which was the effect of the overdrive fieldgoing on. then everything was normal again, except that the liner was speeding for theplanet krim at something more than thirty times the speed of light. normality extended through all the galaxyso far inhabited by men. there were worlds on which there was peace, and worlds on whichthere was tumult. there were busy, zestful

young worlds, and languid, weary old ones.from the near rim to the farthest of occupied systems, planets circled their suns, and menlived on them, and every man took himself seriously and did not quite believe that theuniverse had existed before he was born or would long survive his loss. time passed. comets let out vast streamerslike bridal veils and swept toward and around their suns. some of them—one in ten thousand,or twenty—were possibly seen by human eyes. the liner bearing hoddan sped through thevoid. in time it made a landfall on the planet krim.he went aground and observed the spaceport city. it was new and bustling with tall buildingsand traffic jams and a feverish conviction

that the purpose of living was to earn moremoney this year than last. its spaceport was chaotically busy. hoddan had time for swiftsightseeing of one city only and an estimate of what the people of such a planet wouldbe sure they wanted. he saw slums and gracious public buildings, and went back to the spaceportand the liner which then rose upon the landing grid's force fields until krim was a greatround ball below it. then there was again a jockeying for line, and the liner winkedout of sight and was again journeying at thirty again time passed. in one of the remoter galaxiesa super-nova flamed, and on a rocky, barren world a small living thing squirmed experimentally—andto mankind the one event was just as important as the other.

but presently the liner from krim and waldenappeared in darth as the tiniest of shimmering pearly specks against the blue. to the northand east and west of the spaceport, rugged mountains rose steeply. patches of snow showedhere and there, and naked rock reared boldly in spurs and precipices. but there were treeson all the lower slopes, and there was not really a timberline. the space liner increased in size, descendingtoward the landing grid. the grid itself was a monstrous lattice of steel, half a milehigh and enclosing a circle not less in diameter. it filled much the larger part of the levelvalley floor, and horned duryas and what hoddan later learned were horses grazed in it. theanimals paid no attention to the deep-toned

humming noise the grid made in its operation. the ship seemed the size of a pea. presentlyit was the size of an apple. then it was the size of a basketball, and then it swelledenormously and put out spidery metal legs with large splay metal feet on them and alightedand settled gently to the ground. the humming stopped. there were shoutings. whips cracked. straining,horn-tossing duryas heaved and dragged something, very deliberately, out from between warehousesunder the arches of the grid. there were two dozen of the duryas, and despite the shoutsand whip-crackings they moved with a stubborn slowness. it took a long time for the objectwith the wide-tired wheels to reach a spot

below the spacecraft. then it took longer,seemingly, for brakes to be set on each wheel, and then for the draught animals to be arrangedto pull as two teams against each other. more shoutings and whip-crackings. a long,slanting, ladderlike arm arose. it teetered, and a man with a lurid purple cloak rose withit at its very end. the ship's air lock opened and a crewman threw a rope. the purple-cloakedman caught it and made it fast. from somewhere inside the ship of space the line was hauledin. the end of the landing ramp touched the sill of the air lock. somebody made otherthings fast and the purple-cloaked man triumphantly entered the ship. there was a pause. men loaded carts with cargoto be sent to remote and unimagined planets.

in the air lock, bron hoddan stepped to theunloading ramp and descended to the ground. he was the only passenger. he had barely reacheda firm footing when objects followed him. his own ship bag—a gift from the ambassador—andthen parcels, bales, boxes, and such nondescript items of freight as needed special designation.rolls of wire. long strings of plastic objects, strung like beads on shipping cords. plexiskinsof fluid which might be anything from wine to fuel oil in less than bulk-cargo quantities.for a mere five minutes the flow of freight continued. darth was not an important centerof trade. hoddan stared incredulously at the town outsideone side of the grid. it was only a town—and was almost a village, at that. its houseshad steep, gabled roofs, of which some seemed

to be tile and others thatch. its buildingsleaned over the narrow streets, which were unpaved. they looked like mud. and there wasnot a power-driven ground vehicle anywhere in sight, nor anything man made in the air. great carts trailed out to the unloading belt.they dumped bales of skins and ingots of metal, and more bales and more ingots. those objectsrode up to the air lock and vanished. hoddan was ignored. he felt that without great carehe might be crowded back into the reversed loading belt and be carried back into theship. the loading process ended. the man with thepurple cloak, who'd ridden the teetering belt-beam up, reappeared and came striding grandly downto ground. somebody cast off, above. ropes

writhed and fell and dangled. the ship's airlock door closed. there was a vast humming sound. the ship liftedsedately. it seemed to hover momentarily over the group of duryas and humans in the centerof the grid's enclosure. but it was not hovering. it shrank. it was rising in an absolutelyvertical line. it dwindled to the size of a basketball and then an apple. then to thesize of a pea. and then that pea diminished until the spaceship from krim, walden, cetis,rigel and the nearer rim had become the size of a dust mote and then could not be seenat all. but one knew that it was going on to lohala and tralee and famagusta and thecoalsack stars. hoddan shrugged and began to trudge towardthe warehouses. the durya-drawn landing ramp

began to roll slowly in the same direction.carts and wagons loaded the stuff discharged from the ship. creaking, plodding, with thecurved horns of the duryas rising and falling, the wagons overtook hoddan and passed him.he saw his ship bag on one of the carts. it was a gift from the interstellar ambassadoron walden. he'd assured hoddan that there was a fund for the assistance of politicalrefugees, and that the bag and its contents was normal. but in addition to the gift-clothing,hoddan had a number of stun-pistols, formerly equipment of the police department of walden'scapital city. he followed his bag to a warehouse. arrivedthere, he found the bag surrounded by a group of whiskered or mustachioed darthian characterswearing felt pants and large sheath-knives.

they had opened the bag and were in the actof ferocious dispute about who should get what of its contents. incidentally they arguedover the stun-pistols, which looked like weapons but weren't because nothing happened whenone pulled the trigger. hoddan grimaced. they'd been in store on the liner during the voyage.normally they picked up a trickle charge from broadcast power, on walden, but there wasno broadcast power on the liner, nor any on darth. they'd leaked their charges and werequite useless. the one in his pocket would be useless, too. he grimaced again and swerved to the buildingwhere the landing grid controls must be. he opened the door and went in. the interiorwas smoky and ill-smelling, but the equipment

was wholly familiar. two unshaven men—inviolently colored shirts—languidly played cards. only one, a redhead, paid attentionto the controls of the landing grid. he watched dials. as hoddan pushed his way in, he threwa switch and yawned. the ship was five diameters out from darth, and he'd released it fromthe landing grid fields. he turned and saw hoddan. "what the hell do you want?" he demanded sharply. "a few kilowatts," said hoddan. the redhead'smanner was not amiable. "get outta here!" he barked. the transformers and snaky cables leadingto relays outside—all were clear as print

to hoddan. he moved confidently toward anespecially understandable panel, pulling out his stun-pistol and briskly breaking backthe butt for charging. he shoved the pistol butt to contact with two terminals devisedfor another purpose, and the pistol slipped for an instant and a blue spark flared. "quit that!" roared the red-headed man. theunshaven men pushed back from their game of cards. one of them stood up, smiling unpleasantly. the stun-pistol clicked. hoddan withdrew itfrom charging-contact, flipped the butt shut, and turned toward the three men. two of themcharged him suddenly—the redhead and the unpleasant smiler.

the stun-pistol hummed. the redhead howled.he'd been hit in the hand. his unshaven companion buckled in the middle and fell to the floor.the third man backed away in panic, automatically raising his arms in surrender. hoddan saw no need for further action. henodded graciously and went out of the control building, swinging the recharged pistol inhis hand. in the warehouse, argument still raged over his possessions. he went in, briskly.nobody looked at him. the casual appropriation of unguarded property was apparently a socialnorm, here. the man in the purple cloak was insisting furiously that he was a darthiangentleman and he'd have his share or else— "those things," said hoddan, "are mine. putthem back."

faces turned to him, expressing shocked surprise.a man in dirty yellow pants stood up with a suit of hoddan's underwear and a pair ofshoes. he moved with great dignity to depart. the stun-pistol buzzed. he leaped and howledand fled. hoddan had aimed accurately enough, but prudence suggested that if he appearedto kill anybody, the matter might become serious. so he'd fired to sting the man with a stun-pistolbolt at about the same spot where, on walden, he'd scorched members of a party of policein ambush. it was nice shooting. but this happened to be a time and place where prudencedid not pay. there was a concerted gasp of outrage. menleaped to their feet. large knives came out of elaborate holsters. figures in all thecolors of the rainbow—all badly soiled—roared

their indignation and charged at hoddan. theywaved knives as they came. he held down the stun-pistol trigger and traversedthe rushing men. the whining buzz of the weapon was inaudible, at first, but before he releasedthe trigger it was plainly to be heard. then there was silence. his attackers formed avery untidy heap on the floor. they breathed stertorously. hoddan began to retrieve hispossessions. he rolled a man over, for the purpose. a pair of very blue, apprehensive eyes staredat him. their owner had stumbled over one man and been stumbled over by others. he gazedup at hoddan, speechless. "hand me that, please," said hoddan. he pointed.

the man in the purple cloak obeyed, shaking.hoddan completed the recovery of all his belongings. he turned. the man in the purple cloak wincedand closed his eyes. "hm-m-m," said hoddan. he needed information.he wasn't likely to get it from the men in the grid's control room. he would hardly bepopular with any of these, either. he irritably suspected himself of a tendency to make enemiesunnecessarily. but he did need directions. he said: "i have a letter of introductionto one don loris, prince of something-or-other, lord of this, baron of that, and claimantto the dukedom of the other thing. would you have any idea how i could reach him?" the man in the purple cloak gaped at hoddan.

"he is ... my chieftain," he said, aghast."i ... am thal, his most trusted retainer." then he practically wailed, "you must be theman i was sent to meet! he sent me to learn if you came on the ship! i should have foughtby your side! this is disgrace!" "it's disgraceful," agreed hoddan grimly.but he, who had been born and raised in a space-pirate community, should not be toocritical of others. "let it go. how do i find him?" "i should take you!" complained thal bitterly."but you have killed all these men. their friends and chieftains are honor bound tocut your throat! and you shot merk, but he ran away, and he will be summoning his friendsto come and kill you now! this is shame! this

is—" then he said hopefully: "your strangeweapon! how many men can you fight? if fifty, we may live to ride away. if more, we mayeven reach don loris' castle. how many?" "we'll see what we see," said hoddan dourly."but i'd better charge these other pistols. you can come with me, or wait. i haven't killedthese men. they're only stunned. they'll come around presently." he went out of the warehouse, carrying thebag which was again loaded with uncharged stun-pistols. he went back to the grid's controlroom. he pushed it open and entered for the second time. the red-headed man swore andrubbed at his hand. the man who'd smiled unpleasantly lay in a heap on the floor. the second unshavenman jittered visibly at sight of hoddan.

"i'm back," said hoddan politely, "for morekilowatts." he put his bag conveniently close to the terminalsat which his pistols could be recharged. he snapped open a pistol butt and presented itto the electric contacts. "quaint customs you have here," he said conversationally."robbing a newcomer. resenting his need for a few watts of power that comes free fromthe sky." the stun-pistol clicked. he snapped the butt shut and opened another, which heplaced in contact for charging. "making him act," he said acidly, "with manners as badas the local ones. going at him with knives so he has to be resentful in his turn." thesecond stun-pistol clicked. he closed it and began to charge a third. he said severely:"innocent tourists—relatively innocent ones,

anyhow—are not likely to be favorably impressedwith darth!" he had the charging process going swiftly now. he began to charge a fourth weapon."it's particularly bad manners," he added sternly, "to stand there grinding your teethat me while your friend behind the desk crawls after an old-fashioned chemical gun to shootme with." he snapped the fourth pistol shut and wentafter the man who'd dropped down behind a desk. he came upon that man, hopelessly panicked,just as his hands closed on a clumsy gun that was supposed to set off a chemical explosiveto propel a metal bullet. "don't!" said hoddan severely. "if i haveto shoot you at this range, you'll have blisters!" he took the weapon out of the other man'shands. he went back and finished charging

the rest of the pistols. he returned most of them to his bag, thoughhe stuck others in his belt and pockets to the point where he looked like the fiction-tapepictures of space pirates. but he knew what space pirates were actually like. he movedto the door. as a last thought, he picked up the bullet-firing weapon. "there's only one spaceship here a month,"he observed politely, "so i'll be around. if you want to get in touch with me, ask donloris. i'm going to visit him while i look over professional opportunities on darth." he went out once more. somehow he felt morecheerful than a half-hour since, when he'd

landed as the only passenger from the spaceliner. then he'd felt ignored and lonely and friendless on a strange and primitive world.he still had no friends, but he had already acquired some enemies and therefore materialfor more or less worthwhile achievement. he surveyed the sunlit scene about him from thecontrol-room door. thal, the purple-cloaked man, had broughttwo shaggy-haired animals around to the door of the warehouse. hoddan later learned thatthey were horses. he was frenziedly in the act of mounting one of them. as he climbedup, small bright metal disks cascaded from a pocket. he tried to stop the flow of moneyas he got feverishly into the saddle. from the gable-roofed small town a mob ofsome thirty mounted men plunged toward the

landing grid. they wore garments of yellowand blue and magenta. they waved large-bladed knives and made bloodthirsty noises. thalsaw them and bolted, riding one horse and towing the other by a lead rope. it happenedthat his line of retreat passed by where hoddan stood. hoddan held up his hand. thal reined in. "mount!" he cried hoarsely. "mount and ride!" hoddan passed up the chemical—powder—gun.thal seized it frantically. "hurry!" he panted. "don loris would havemy throat cut if i deserted you! mount and ride!"

hoddan painstakingly fastened his bag to thesaddle of the lead horse. he unfastened the lead rope. he'd noticed that thal pulled inthe leather reins to stop the horse. he'd seen that he kicked it furiously to urge iton. he deduced that one steered the animal by pulling on one strap or the other. he climbedclumsily to a seat. there was a howl from the racing, mountedmen. they waved their knives and yelled in zestful anticipation of murder. hoddan pulled on a rein. his horse turnedobediently. he kicked it. the animal broke into a run toward the rushing mob. the joltingmotion amazed hoddan. one could not shoot straight while being shaken up like this!he dragged back on the reins. the horse stopped.

"come!" yelled thal despairingly. "this way!quick!" hoddan got out a stun-pistol. sitting erect,frowning a little in his concentration, he began to take pot-shots at the charging smallhorde. three of them got close enough to be blisteredwhen stun-pistol bolts hit them. others toppled from their saddles at distances ranging fromone hundred yards to twenty. a good dozen, however, saw what was happening in time toswerve their mounts and hightail it away. but there were eighteen luridly-tinted heapsof garments on the ground inside the landing grid. two or three of them squirmed and swore.hoddan had partly missed, on them. he heard the chemical weapon booming thunderously.now that victory was won, thal was shooting

valorously. hoddan held up his hand for ceasefire. thal rode up beside him, not quite believing what he'd seen. "wonderful!" he said shakily. "wonderful!don loris will be pleased! he will give me gifts for my help to you! this is a greatfight! we will be great men, after this!" "then let's go and brag," said hoddan. thal was shocked. "you need me," he said commiseratingly. "itis fortunate that don loris chose me to fight beside you!" he sent his horse trotting toward the mostlyunconscious men on the ground. he alighted.

hoddan saw him happily and publicly pick thepockets of the stun-gun's victims. he came back, beaming and now swaggering in his saddle. "we will be famous!" he said zestfully. "twoagainst thirty, and some ran away!" he gloated. "and it was a good haul! we share, of course,because we are companions." "is it the custom," asked hoddan mildly, "toloot defenseless men?" "but of course!" said thal. "how else cana gentleman live, if he has no chieftain to give him presents? you defeated them, so ofcourse you take their possessions!" "ah, yes," said hoddan. "to be sure!" he rode on. the road was a mere horse track.presently it was less than that. he saw a

frowning, battlemented stronghold away offto the left. thal openly hoped that somebody would come from that castle and try to chargethem toll for riding over their lord's land. after hoddan had knocked them over with thestun-pistol, thal would add to the heavy weight of coins already in his possession. it did not look promising, in a way. but justbefore sunset, hoddan saw three tiny bright lights flash across the sky from west to east.they moved in formation and at identical speeds. hoddan knew a spaceship in orbit when he sawone. he bristled, and muttered under his breath. "what's that?" asked thal. "what did you say?" "i said," said hoddan dourly, "that i've gotto do something about walden. when they get

an idea in their heads...."iv according to the fiction tapes, the colonizedworlds of the galaxy vary wildly from each other. in cold and unromantic fact, it isn'tso. space travel is too cheap and sol-type solar systems too numerous to justify thesettlement of hostile worlds. there's no point in trying to live where one has to put onspecial equipment every time he goes outdoors. there's no reason to settle on a world whereone can't grow the kind of vegetation one's ancestors adapted themselves to some tensof thousands of generations ago. it simply doesn't make sense! so the inhabited worlds of the galaxy arefarther apart than they could be, perhaps,

and much more alike than is necessary. butthe human race has a predilection for gravity fields not too far from 980cm-sec accellerativeforce. we humans were designed for something like that. we prefer foodstuffs containingfamiliar amino compounds. our metabolism was designed around them. and since our geneticistshave learned how to put aggressiveness into the genes of terrestrial-origin plants—whynowadays they briskly overwhelm the native flora wherever they are introduced. and it'srational to let it happen. if people are to thrive and multiply on new worlds as theyare colonized, it's more convenient to modify the worlds to fit the colonists than the coloniststo fit the worlds. therefore bron hoddan encountered no remarkablefeatures in the landscape of darth as he rode

through the deepening night. there was grass,which was not luxuriant. there were bushes, which were not unduly lush. there were trees,and birds, and various other commonplace living things whose forebears had been dumped ondarth some centuries before. the ecological system had worked itself out strictly by hit-or-miss,but the result was not unfamiliar. save for the star-pattern overhead, hoddan could havebelieved himself on some parts of zan, or some parts of walden, or very probably somewhereor other on lohala or kent or famagusta or any other occupied world between the rims. there was, though, the star-pattern. hoddantried to organize it in his mind. he knew where the sun had set, which would be west.he asked the latitude of the darthian spaceport.

thal did not know it. he asked about majorgeographical features—seas and continents and so on. thal had no ideas on the subject. hoddan fumed. he hadn't worried about suchthings on walden. of course, on walden he'd had one friend, derec, and believed he hada sweetheart, nedda. there he was lonely and schemed to acquire the admiration of others.he ignored the sky. here on darth he had no friends, but there were a number of localcitizens now doubtless recovered from stun-pistol bolts and yearning to carve him up with largeknives. he did not feel lonely, but the instinct to know where he was, was again in operation. the ground was rocky and far from level. aftertwo hours of riding on a small and wiry horse

with no built-in springs, hoddan hurt in agreat many places he'd never known he owned. he and thal rode in an indeterminate directionwith an irregular scarp of low mountains silhouetted against the unfamiliar stars. a vagrant night-windblew. thal had said it was a three-hour ride to don loris' castle. after something overtwo of them, he said meditatively: "i think that if you wish to give me a presenti will take it and not make a gift in return. you could give me," he added helpfully, "yourshare of the plunder from our victims." "why?" demanded hoddan. "why should i giveyou a present?" "if i accepted it," explained thal, "and madeno gift in return, i would become your retainer. then it would be my obligation as a darthiangentleman to ride beside you, advise, counsel,

and fight in your defense, and generally touphold your dignity." hoddan suspected himself of blisters in placesthat had no dignity about them. he said suspiciously: "how about don loris? aren't you his retainer?" "between the two of us," said thal, "he'sstingy. his presents are not as lavish as they could be. i can make him a return-presentof part of the money we won in combat. that frees me of duty to him. then i could acceptthe balance of the money from you, and become a retainer of yours." "oh," said hoddan. "you need a retainer badly," said thal. "youdo not know the customs here. for example,

there is enmity between don loris and theyoung lord ghek. if the young lord ghek is as enterprising as he should be, some of hisretainers should be lying in wait to cut our throats as we approach don loris' stronghold." "hm-m-m," said hoddan grimly. but thal seemedundisturbed. "this system of gifts and presents sounds complicated. why doesn't don lorissimply give you so much a year, or week, or whatnot?" thal made a shocked sound. "that would be pay! a darthian gentleman doesnot serve for pay! to offer it would be insult!" then he said, "listen!"

he reined in. hoddan clumsily followed hisexample. after a moment or two thal clucked to his horse and started off again. "it was nothing," he said regretfully. "ihoped we were riding into an ambush." hoddan grunted. it could be that he was beingtold a tall tale. but back at the spaceport, the men who came after him waving large kniveshad seemed sincere enough. "why should we be ambushed?" he asked. "andwhy do you hope for it?" "your weapons would destroy our enemies,"said thal placidly, "and the pickings would be good." he added: "we should be ambushedbecause the lady fani refused to marry the lord ghek. she is don loris' daughter, andto refuse to marry a man is naturally a deadly

insult. so he should ravage don loris' landsat every opportunity until he gets a chance to carry off the lady fani and marry her byforce. that is the only way the insult can be wiped out." "i see," said hoddan ironically. he didn't. the two horses topped a rise, andfar in the distance there was a yellow light, with a mist above it as of illuminated smoke. "that is don loris' stronghold," said thal.he sighed. "it looks like we may not be ambushed." they weren't. it was very dark where the horsesforged ahead through brushwood. as they moved onward, the single light became two. theywere great bonfires burning in iron cages

some forty feet up in the air. those cagesprojected from the battlements of a massive, cut-stone wall. there was no light anywhereelse underneath the stars. thal rode almost underneath the cressets andshouted upward. a voice answered. presently a gate clanked open and a black, cavelikeopening appeared behind it. thal rode grandly in, and hoddan followed. now that the rideseemed over, he let himself realize where he ached from the unaccustomed exercise. everywhere.he also guessed at the area of his skin first rubbed to blisters and then to the discomfortof raw flesh underneath. the gate clanked shut. torches waved overhead.hoddan found that he and thal had ridden into a very tiny courtyard. twenty feet above them,an inner battlemented wall offered excellent

opportunities for the inhabitants of the castleto throw things down at visitors who after admission turned out to be undesired. thal shouted further identifications, includinga boastful and entirely untruthful declaration that he and hoddan, together, had slaughteredtwenty men in one place and thirty in another, and left them lying in their gore. the voices that replied sounded derisive.somebody came down a rope and fastened the gate from the inside. with an extreme amountof creaking, an inner gate swung wide. men came out of it and took the horses. hoddandismounted, and it seemed to him that he creaked as loudly as the gate. thal swaggered, displayingcoins he had picked from the pockets of the

men the stun-pistols had disabled. he saidsplendidly to hoddan: "i go to announce your coming to don loris.these are his retainers. they will give you to drink." he added amiably, "if you weregiven food, it would be disgraceful to cut your throat." he disappeared. hoddan carried his ship bagand followed a man in a dirty pink shirt to a stone-walled room containing a table anda chair. he sat down, relieved to have a rest for his back. the man in the pink shirt broughthim a flagon of wine. he disappeared again. hoddan drank sour wine and brooded. he wasvery hungry and very tired, and it seemed to him that he had been disillusioned in anew dimension. morbidly, he remembered a frequently

given lecture from his grandfather on zan. "it's no use!" it was the custom of his grandfatherto say. "there's not a bit o' use in having brains! all they do is get you into trouble!a lucky idiot's ten times better off than a brainy man with a jinx on him! a smart manstarts thinkin', and he thinks himself into a jail cell if his luck is bad, and good luck'swasted on him because it ain't reasonable and he don't believe in it when it happens!it's taken me a lifetime to keep my brains from ruinin' me! no, sir! i hope none o' mydescendants inherit my brains! i pity 'em if they do!" hoddan had been on darth not more than fourhours. in that time he'd found himself robbed,

had resented it, had been the object of twospirited attempts at assassination, had ridden an excruciating number of miles on an unfamiliaranimal, and now found himself in a stone dungeon and deprived of food lest feeding him obligatehis host not to cut his throat. and he'd gotten into this by himself! he'd chosen it! he'dpractically asked for it! he began strongly to share his grandfather'sdisillusioned view of brains. after a long time the door of the cell opened.thal was back, chastened. "don loris wants to talk to you," he saidin a subdued voice. "he's not pleased." hoddan took another gulp of the wine. he pickedup his ship bag and limped to the door. he decided painfully that he was limping on thewrong leg. he tried the other. no improvement.

he really needed to limp on both. he followed a singularly silent thal througha long stone corridor and up stone steps until they came to a monstrous hall with torchesin holders on the side walls. it was barbarically hung with banners, but it was not exactlya cheery place. at the far end logs burned in a great fireplace. don loris sat in a carved chair beside it;wizened and white-bearded, in a fur-trimmed velvet robe, with a peevish expression onhis face. "my chieftain," said thal subduedly, "hereis the engineer from walden." hoddan scowled at don loris, whose expressionof peevishness did not lighten. he did regard

hoddan with a flicker of interest, however.a stranger who unfeignedly scowls at a feudal lord with no superior and many inferiors isanyhow a novelty. "thal tells me," said don loris fretfully,"that you and he, together, slaughtered some dozens of the retainers of my neighbors today.i consider it unfortunate. they may ask me to have the two of you hanged, and it wouldbe impolite to refuse." hoddan said truculently: "i considered it impolite for your neighbors'retainers to march toward me waving large knives and announcing what they intended todo to my inwards with them!" "yes," agreed don loris impatiently. "i concedethat point. it is natural enough to act hastily

at such times. but still— how many did youkill?" "none," said hoddan curtly. "i shot them withstun-pistols i'd just charged in the control room of the landing grid." don loris sat up straight. "stun-pistols?" he demanded sharply. "youused stun-pistols on darth?" "naturally on darth," said hoddan with sometartness. "i was here! but nobody was killed. one or two may be slightly blistered. allof them had their pockets picked by thal. i understand that is a local custom. there'snothing to worry about." but don loris stared at him, aghast.

"but this is deplorable!" he protested. "stun-pistolsused here? it is the one thing i would have given strict orders to avoid! my neighborswill talk about it. some of them may even think about it! you could have used any otherweapon, but of all things why did you have to use a stun-pistol?" "because i had one," said hoddan briefly. "horrible!" said don loris peevishly. "theworst thing you could possibly have done! i have to disown you. unmistakably! you'llhave to disappear at once. we'll blame it on ghek's retainers." hoddan said:

"disappear? me?" "vanish," said don loris. "i suppose there'sno real necessity to cut your throat, but you plainly have to disappear, though it wouldhave been much more discreet if you'd simply gotten killed." "i was indiscreet to survive?" demanded hoddanbristling. "extremely so!" snapped don loris. "here ihad you come all the way from walden to help arrange a delicate matter, and before you'dtraveled even the few miles to my castle—within minutes of landing on darth!—you spoiledeverything! i am a reasonable man, but there are the facts! you used stun-pistols, so youhave to disappear. i think it generous for

me to say only until people on darth forgetthat such things exist. but the two of you ... oh, for a year or so ... there are somefairly cozy dungeons—" hoddan seethed suddenly. he'd tried to dosomething brilliant on walden, and had been framed for jail for life. he'd defended hislife and property on darth, and nearly the same thing popped up as a prospect. hoddanangrily suspected fate and chance of plain conspiracy against him. but there was an interruption. a clankingof arms sounded somewhere nearby. men with long, gruesome, glittering spears came througha doorway. they stood aside. a girl entered the great hall. more spearmen followed her.they stopped by the door. the girl came across

the hall. she was a pretty girl, but hoddan hardly noticedthe fact. with so many other things on his mind, he had no time for girls. thal, behind him, said in a quivering voice: "my lady fani, i beg you to plead with yourfather for his most faithful retainer!" the girl looked surprisedly at him. her eyesfell on hoddan. she looked interested. hoddan, at that moment, was very nearly as disgustedand as indignant as a man could be. he did not look romantically at her—which to thelady fani, daughter of that don loris who was prince of this and baron of that and soon, was news. he did not look at her at all.

he ground his teeth. "don't try to wheedle me, fani!" snapped donloris. "i am a reasonable man, but i indulge you too much—even to allowing you to refusethat young imbecile ghek, with no end of inconvenience as a result. but i will not have you questionmy decision about thal and this hoddan person!" the girl said pleasantly: "of course not, father. but what have theydone?" "the two of them," snapped don loris again,"fought twenty men today and defeated all of them! thal plundered them. then thirtyother men, mounted, tried to avenge the first and they defeated them also! thal plunderedeighteen. and all this was permissible, if

unlikely. but they did it with stun-pistols!everybody within news range will talk of it! they'll know that this hoddan came to darthto see me! they'll suspect that i imported new weapons for political purposes! they'llguess at the prettiest scheme i've had these twenty years!" the girl stood still. a spearman leaned hisweapon against the wall, raced across the hall, shifted a chair to a convenient positionfor the lady fani to sit on it, and raced back to his fellows. she sat down. "but did they really defeat so many?" sheasked, marveling. "that's wonderful! and thal was undoubtedly fighting in defense of someoneyou'd told him to protect, as a loyal retainer

should do. wasn't he?" "i wish," fumed her father, "that you wouldnot throw in irrelevances! i sent him to bring this hoddan here this afternoon, not to massacremy neighbors' retainers—or rather, not to not massacre them. a little blood-lettingwould have done no harm, but stun-pistols—" "he was protecting somebody he was told toprotect," said fani. "and this other man, this—" "hoddan. bron hoddan," said her father irritably."yes. he was protecting himself! doubtless he thought he did me a service in doing that!but if he'd only let himself get killed quietly the whole affair would be simplified!"

the lady fani said with quiet dignity: "by the same reasoning, father, it would simplifythings greatly if i let the lord ghek kidnap me." "it's not the same thing at all—" "at least," said fani, "i wouldn't have apack of spearmen following me about like puppies everywhere i go!" "it's not the same—" "their breaths smelling of wine except whenthey smell of beer, and they breathe very noisily and—"

"it's not—" "and it's especially unreasonable," said thelady fani with even greater dignity, "when you could put thal and this—hoddan personon duty to guard me instead. if they can fight twenty and thirty men at once, all by themselves,it doesn't seem to me that you think much of my safety when you want to lock them upsomewhere instead of using them to keep your daughter safe from that particularly horribleghek!" don loris swore in a cracked voice. then hesaid: "to end the argument i'll think it over. untiltomorrow. now go away!" fani, beaming, rose and kissed him on theforehead. he squirmed. she turned to leave,

and beckoned casually for thal and hoddanto follow her. "my chieftain," said thal tremulously, "dowe depart, too?" "yes!" rasped don loris. "get out of my sight!" thal moved with agility in the wake of thelady fani. hoddan picked up his bag and followed. this, he considered darkly, was in the natureof a reprieve only. and if those three spaceships overhead did come from walden—but why three? the lady fani went out the door she'd enteredby. some of the spearmen went ahead, and others closed in behind her. hoddan followed. therewere stone steps leading upward. they were steep and uneven and interminable. hoddanclimbed on aching legs for what seemed ages.

stars appeared. the leading spearmen steppedout on a flagstoned level area. when hoddan got there he saw that they had arrived atthe battlements of a high part of the castle wall. starlight showed a rambling wall ofcircumvallation, with peaked roofs inside it. he could look down into a courtyard wherea fire burned and several men busily did things beside it. but there were no other lights.beyond the castle wall the ground stretched away toward a nearby range of rugged low mountains.it was vaguely splotched with different degrees of darkness, where fields and pastures andwoodland copses stood. "here's a bench," said fani cheerfully, "andyou can sit down beside me and explain things. what's your name, again, and where did youcome from?"

"i'm bron hoddan," said hoddan. he found himselfscowling. "i come from zan, where everybody is a space pirate. my grandfather heads themost notorious of the pirate gangs." "wonderful!" said fani, admiringly. "i knewyou couldn't be just an ordinary person and fight like my father said you did today!" thal cleared his throat. "lady fani—" "hush!" said fani. "you're a nice old fuddy-duddythat father sent to the spaceport because he figured you'd be too timid to get intotrouble. hush!" to hoddan she said interestedly, "now, tell me all about the fighting. it musthave been terrible!"

she watched him with her head on one side,expectantly. "the fighting i did today," said hoddan angrily,"was exactly as dangerous and as difficult as shooting fish in a bucket. a little moretrouble, but not much." even in the starlight he could see that herexpression was more admiring than before. "i thought you'd say something like that!"she said contentedly. "go on!" "that's all," said hoddan. "quite all?" "i can't think of anything else," he toldher. he added drearily: "i rode a horse for three hours today. i'm not used to it. i ache.your father is thinking of putting me in a

dungeon until some scheme or other of hisgoes through. i'm disappointed. i'm worried about three lights that went across the skyat sundown and i'm simply too tired and befuddled for normal conversation." "oh," said fani. "if i may take my leave," said hoddan querulously,"i'll get some rest and do some thinking when i get up. i'll hope to have more entertainingthings to say." he got to his feet and picked up his bag. "where do i go?" he asked. fani regarded him enigmatically. thal squirmed.

"thal will show you." then fani said deliberately,"bron hoddan, will you fight for me?" thal plucked anxiously at his arm. hoddansaid politely: "if at all desirable, yes. but now i mustget some sleep." "thank you," said fani. "i am troubled bythe lord ghek." she watched him move away. thal, moaning softly,went with him down another monstrosity of a stone stairway. "oh, what folly!" mourned thal. "i tried towarn you! you would not pay attention! when the lady fani asked if you would fight forher, you should have said if her father permitted you that honor. but you said yes! the spearmenheard you! now you must either fight the lord

ghek within a night and day or be disgraced!" "i doubt," said hoddan tiredly, "that theobligations of darthian gentility apply to the grandson of a pirate or an escap.... tome." he'd been about to say an escaped criminalfrom walden, but caught himself in time. "but they do apply!" said thal, shocked. "aman who has been disgraced has no rights! any man may plunder him, any man may killhim at will. but if he resists plundering or kills anybody else in self-defense, heis hanged!" hoddan stopped short in his descent of theuneven stone steps. "that's me from now on?" he said sardonically."of course the lady fani didn't mean to put

me on such a spot!" "you were not polite," explained thal. "she'dpersuaded her father out of putting us in a dungeon until he thought of us again. youshould at least have shown good manners! you should have said that you came here acrossdeserts and flaming oceans because of the fame of her beauty. you might have said youheard songs of her sweetness beside campfires half a world away. she might not have believedyou, but—" "hold it!" said hoddan. "that's just manners?what would you say to a girl you really liked?" "oh, then," said thal, "you'd get complimentary!" hoddan went heavily down the rest of the steps.he was not in the least pleased. on a strange

world, with strange customs, and with hisweapons losing their charge every hour, he did not need any handicaps. but if he gotinto a worse-than-outlawed category such as thal described— at the bottom of the stairs he said, seething: "when you've tucked me in bed, go back andask the lady fani to arrange for me to have a horse and permission to go fight this lordghek right after breakfast!" he was too much enraged to think further.he let himself be led into some sort of quarters which probably answered don loris' descriptionof a cozy dungeon. thal vanished and came back with ointments for hoddan's blisters,but no food. he explained again that food

given to hoddan would make it disgracefulto cut his throat. and hoddan swore poisonously, but stripped off his garments and smearedhimself lavishly where he had lost skin. the ointment stung like fire, and he presentlylay awake in a sort of dreary fury. and he was ravenous! it seemed to him that he lay awake for aeons,but he must have dozed off because he was awakened by a yell. it was not a completeyell; only the first part of one. it stopped in a particularly unpleasant fashion, andits echoes went reverberating through the stony walls of the castle. hoddan was outof bed with a stun-pistol in his hand in a hurry, before that first yell was followedby other shouts and outcries, by the clashing

of steel upon steel, and all the frenziedtumult of combat in the dark. the uproar moved. in seconds the sound of fighting came froma plainly different direction, as if a striking force of some sort went rushing through onlyindifferently defended corridors. it would not pass before hoddan's door, buthe growled to himself. on a feudal world, presumably one might expect anything. butthere was a situation in being, here, in which etiquette required a rejected suitor to carryoff a certain scornful maiden by force. some young lordling named ghek had to carry offfani or be considered a man of no spirit. a gun went off somewhere. it was a powdergun, exploding violently to send a metal bullet somewhere. it went off again. there was aninstant almost of silence. then an intolerable

screeching of triumph, and shrieks of anothersort entirely, and the excessively loud clash of arms once more. hoddan was clothed, now—at least clothedenough to have places to stick stun-pistols. he jerked on the door to open it, irritablydemanding of himself how he would know which side was which, or for that matter which sidehe should fight on. the door was locked. he raged. he flung himselfagainst it and it barely quivered. it was barred on the outside. he swore in highlyindecorous terms, and tore his bedstead apart to get a battering-ram. the fighting reached a climax. he heard agirl scream, and without question knew that

it was the lady fani, and equally withoutquestion knew that he would fight to keep any girl from being abducted by a man shedidn't want to marry. he swung the log which was the corner post of his bed. somethingcracked. he swung again. the sound of battle changed to that of a runningfight. the objective of the raiders had been reached. having gotten what they came for—andit could only be fani—they retreated swiftly, fighting only to cover their retreat. hoddanswung his bed leg with furious anger. he heard a flurry of yells and sword strokes, and afierce, desperate cry from fani among them, and a plank in his guest-room-dungeon doorgave way. he struck again. the running raiders poured past a corner some yards away. he batteredand swore, swore and battered as the tumult

moved, and he suddenly heard a scurrying thunderof horses' hoofs outside the castle altogether. there were yells of derisive triumph and thepounding, rumbling sound of horses headed away in the night until it was lost. still raging inarticulately, hoddan crashedhis small log at the door. he was not consciously concerned about the distress don loris mightfeel over the abduction of his daughter. but there is an instinct in most men against theforcing of a girl to marriage against her will. hoddan battered at his door. aroundhim the castle began to hum like a hive of bees. women cried out or exclaimed, and menshouted furiously to one another, and off-duty fighting men came belatedly looking for somebodyto fight, dragging weapons behind them and

not knowing where to find enemies. bron hoddan probably made as much noise asany four of them. somebody brought a light somewhere near. it shone through the cracksin the splintered planks. he could see to aim. he smote savagely and the door came apart.it fell outward and he found himself in the corridor outside, being stared at by completestrangers. "it's the engineer," someone explained tosomeone else. "i saw him when he rode in with thal." "i want thal," said hoddan coldly. "i wanta dozen horses. i want men to ride them with me." he pushed his way forward. "which wayto the stables?"

but then he went back and picked up his bagof stun-pistols. his air was purposeful and his manner furious. the retainers of don loriswere in an extremely apologetic frame of mind. the lady fani had been carried off into thenight by a raiding party undoubtedly led by lord ghek. the defenders of the castle hadn'tprevented it. so there was no special reason to obey hoddan, but there was every reasonto seem to be doing something useful. he found himself almost swept along by agitatedretainers trying to look as if they were about a purposeful affair. they went down a longramp, calling uneasily to each other. they eddied around a place where two men lay quitestill on the floor. then there were shouts of, "thal! this way, thal!" and hoddan foundhimself in a small stone-walled courtyard

doubtless inside a sally-port. it was filledwith milling figures and many waving torches. and there was thal, desperately pale and frightened.behind him there was don loris, his eyes burning and his hands twitching, literally speechlessfrom fury. "pick a dozen men, thal!" commanded hoddan."get 'em on horses! get a horse for me, dammit! i'll show 'em how to use the stun-pistolsas we ride!" thal panted, shaking: "they ... hamstrung most of the horses!" "get the ones that are left!" barked hoddan.he suddenly raged at don loris. "here's another time stun-pistols get used on darth! objectto this if you want to!"

hoofbeats. thal on a horse that shied andreared at the flames and confusion. other horses, skittish and scared, with the smellof spilt blood in their nostrils, fighting the men who led them, their eyes rolling. thal called names as he looked about him.there was plenty of light. as he called a name, a man climbed on a horse. men thrustswords, spears—all manner of weapons upon them. some of the chosen men swaggered becauseof their choice. some looked woefully unhappy. but with don loris glaring frenziedly uponthem in the smoky glare, no man refused. hoddan climbed ungracefully upon the mountthat four or five men held for him. thal, with a fine sense of drama, seized a torchand waved it above his head. there was a vast

creaking, and an unsuspected gate opened,and thal rode out with a great clattering of hoofs and the others rode out after him. there were lights everywhere about the castle,now. all along the battlements men had set light to fire-baskets and lowered them partwaydown the walls, to disclose any attacking force which might have dishonorable intentionstoward the stronghold. others waved torches from the battlements. thal swung his torch and pointed to the ground. "they rode here!" he called to hoddan. "theyride for ghek's castle!" hoddan said angrily:

"put out that light! do you want to advertisehow few we are and what we're doing? here, ride close!" thal flung down the torch and horses trodit underfoot as the knot of men rode on. thal boomed: "the pickings should be good, eh? why do youwant me?" "you've got to learn something," snapped hoddan."here! this is a stun-pistol. it's set for single-shot firing only. you hold it so, withyour finger along this rod. you point your finger at a man and pull this trigger. thepistol will buzz—briefly. you let the trigger loose and point at another man and pull thetrigger again. understand? don't try to use

it over ten yards. you're no marksman!" there on a galloping horse beside hoddan inthe darkness, thal zestfully repeated his lesson. "show another man and send him to me for apistol," hoddan commanded curtly. "i'll be showing others." he turned to the man who rode too close tohis left. before he had fully instructed that man, another clamored for a weapon on hisright. this was hardly adequate training in the useof modern weapons. for that matter, hoddan was hardly qualified to give military instruction.he'd only gone on two pirate voyages himself.

but little boys on zan played at pirate, indutiful emulation of their parents. at least the possibilities of stun-guns were envisionedin their childish games. so hoddan knew more about how to fight with stun-pistols thansomebody who knew nothing at all. the band of pursuing horsemen pounded throughthe dark night under strangely patterned stars. hoddan held on to his saddle and barked outinstructions to teach darthians how to shoot. he felt very queer. he began to worry. withthe lights of don loris' castle long vanished behind, he began to realize how very smallhis troop was. thal had said something about horses beinghamstrung. there must, then, have been two attacking parties. one swarmed into the stablesto draw all defending retainers there. then

the other poured over a wall or in througha bribed-open sally-port, and rushed for the lady fani's apartments. the point was thatthe attackers had made sure there could be only a token pursuit. they knew they weremany times stronger than any who might come after them. it would be absurd for them toflee.... hoddan kicked his horse and got up to thefront of the column of riders in the night. "thal!" he snapped. "they'll be idiots ifthey keep on running away, now they're too far off to worry about men on foot. they'llstop and wait for us—most of them anyhow. we're riding into an ambush!" "good pickings, eh?" said thal.

"idiot!" yelped hoddan. "these men know you.you know what i can do with stun-pistols! tell them we're riding into ambush. they'reto follow close behind us two! tell them they're not to shoot at anybody more than five yardsoff and not coming at them, and if any man stops to plunder i'll kill him personally!" thal gaped at him. "not stop to plunder?" "ghek won't!" snapped hoddan. "he'll takefani on to his castle, leaving most of his men behind to massacre us!" thal reined aside and hoddan pounded on atthe head of the tiny troop. this was the second

time in his life he'd been on a horse. itwas two too many. this adventure was not exhilarating. it came into his mind, depressingly, thatsupposedly stirring action like this was really no more satisfying than piracy. fani had trickedhim into a fix in which he had to fight ghek or be disgraced—and to be disgraced on darthwas equivalent to suicide. his horse came to a gentle rise in the ground.it grew steeper. the horse slacked in its galloping. the incline grew steeper still.the horse slowed to a walk, which it pursued with a rhythmically tossing head. it was onlyless uncomfortable than a gallop. the dim outline of trees appeared overhead. "perfect place for an ambush," hoddan reflecteddourly.

he got out a stun-pistol. he set the studfor continuous fire—something he hadn't dared trust to the others. his horse breasted the rise. there was a yellahead and dim figures plunged toward him. he painstakingly made ready to swing his stun-pistolfrom his extreme right, across the space before him, and all the way to the extreme left.the pistol should be capable of continuous fire for four seconds. but it was operatingon stored charge. he didn't dare count on more than three. he pulled the trigger. the stun-pistol hummed,though its noise was inaudible through the yells of the charging partisans of the lordghek.

v hoddan swore from the depths of a very considerablevocabulary. "you (censored)—(deleted)—(omitted)—(unprintability)",he roared. "get back up on your horse or i blast you and leave you for ghek's men tohandle when they're able to move about again! get back on that horse! one—two—" the man got back on the horse. "now go on ahead," rasped hoddan. "all ofyou! i'm going to count you!" the dozen horsemen from don loris' strongholdrode reluctantly on ahead. he did count them. he rode on, shepherding them before him.

"ghek," he told them in a blood-curdling tone,"has a bigger prize than any cash you'll plunder from one of his shot-down retainers! he'sgot the lady fani! he won't stop before he has her behind castle walls! we've got tocatch up with him! do you want to try to climb into his castle by your fingernails? you'lldo it if he gets there first!" the horses moved a little faster. thal saidwith surprising humility: "if we force our horses too much, they'llbe exhausted before we can catch up." "figure it out," snapped hoddan. "we haveto catch up!" he settled down to more of the acute discomfortthat riding was to him. he did not think again of the ambush. it had happened, and it hadfailed. four-fifths of the raiding party that

had fought its way into don loris' strongholdand out again, had been waiting for pursuers atop a certain bit of rising ground. they'dknown their pursuers must come this way. there were certain passes through the low but ruggedhills. one went this way or that, but no other. their blood already warmed by past fighting,when hoddan and his dozen seemed to ride right into destruction, they flung themselves intoa charge. but hoddan had a stun-pistol set for continuousfire. he used it like a hose or a machine gun, painstakingly sweeping it across thenight before him, neither too fast nor too slowly. it affected the rushing followersof lord ghek exactly as if it had been an oversized meat-chopper. they went down. onlythree men remained in their saddles—they'd

probably been sheltered by the bodies of menahead. hoddan attended to those three with individual, personalized stun-pistol bolts—andimmediately had trouble with his men, who wanted to dismount and plunder their fallenenemies. he wouldn't even let them collect the horsesof the men now out of action. it would cost time, and ghek wouldn't be losing any thathe could help. with a raging, trembling girl as prisoner, most men would want to get herbehind battlements as soon as possible. but hoddan knew that his party was slowed downby him. presently he began to feel bitterly sure that ghek would reach his castle beforehe was overtaken. "this place he's heading for," he said discouragedlyto thal. "any chance of our rushing it?"

"oh, no!" said thal dolefully. "ten men couldhold it against a thousand!" "then can't we make better time?" thal said resignedly: "ghek probably had fresh horses waiting, sohe could keep on at top speed in his flight. i doubt we will catch him, now." "the lady fani," said hoddan bitterly, "hasput me in a fix so if i don't fight him i'm ruined!" "disgraced," corrected thal. he said mournfully,"it's the same thing." gloom descended on the whole party as it filledtheir leaders. insensibly, the pace of the

horses slackened still more. they had donewell. but a horse that can cover fifty miles a day at its own gait, can be exhausted inten or less, if pushed. by the time hoddan and his men were within two miles of ghek'scastle, their mounts were extremely reluctant to move faster than a walk. at a mile, theywere kept in motion only by kicks. the route they followed was specific. therewas no choice of routes, here in the hills. they could only follow every twist and turnof the trail, among steep mountain-flanks and minor peaks. but suddenly they came toa clear wide valley, yellow cressets burned at its upper end, no more than half a miledistant. they showed a castle gate, open, with the last of a party of horsemen filinginto it. even as hoddan swore, the gate closed.

faint shouts of triumph came from inside thecastle walls to the completely frustrated pursuers without. "i'd have bet on this," said hoddan miserably."stop here, thal. pick out a couple of your more hang-dog characters and fix them up withtheir hands apparently tied behind their backs. we take a breather for five minutes—no more." he would not let any man dismount. he shiftedhimself about on his own saddle, trying to find a comfortable way to sit. he failed.at the end of five minutes he gave orders. there were still shouts occasionally fromwithin ghek's castle. they had that unrhythmic frequency which suggested that they were responsesto a speech. ghek was making a fine, dramatic

spectacle of his capture of an unwilling bride.he was addressing his retainers and saying that through their fine loyalty, co-operationand willingness to risk all for their chieftain, they now had the lady fani to be their chatelaine.he thanked them from the bottom of his heart and they were invited to the official wedding,which would take place sometime tomorrow, most likely. before the speech was quite finished, however,hoddan and his weary following rode up into the patch of light cast by the cressets outsidethe walls. thal bellowed to the battlements. "prisoners!" he roared, according to instructionsfrom hoddan. "we caught some prisoners in the ambush! they got fancy news! tell lordghek he'd better get their story right off!

no time to waste! urgent!" hoddan played the part of one prisoner, justin case anybody noticed from above that one man rode as if either entirely unskilled inriding or else injured in a fight. he heard shoutings, over the walls. he glaredat his men and they drooped in their saddles. the gate creaked open and the horsemen fromdon loris' castle filed inside. they showed no elation, because hoddan had promised toram a spear-shaft its full length down the throat of any man who gave away his stratagemahead of time. the gate closed behind them. men appeared to take their horses. this couldhave revealed that the newcomers were strangers, but ghek would have recruited new and extraretainers for the emergency of tonight. there

would be many strange faces in his castlejust now. "good fight, eh?" bellowed an ancient, long-retiredretainer with a wine bottle in his hand. "good fight!" agreed thal. "good plunder, eh?" bellowed the ancient abovethe heads of younger men. "like the good old days?" "better!" boomed thal. at just this instant the young lord ghek appeared.there were scratches on his cheek, acquired during the ride with fani across his saddlebow.he looked thrilled by his victory but uneasy about his prize.

"what's this about prisoners with fancy news?"he demanded. "what is it?" "don loris!" whooped thal. "long live thelady fani!" hoddan painstakingly opened fire; with thecontinuous-fire stud of this pistol—his third tonight—pressed down. the merrymakersin the courtyard wavered and went down in windrows. thal opened fire with a stun-pistol.the others bellowed and began to fling bolts at every living thing they saw. "to the lady fani!" rasped hoddan, gettingoff his horse with as many creakings as the castle gate. his followers now rushed, dismounting wherethey had to. they fired with reckless abandon.

a stun-pistol, which does not kill, imposesfew restraints upon its user. if you shoot somebody who doesn't need to be shot, he maynot like it but he isn't permanently harmed. so the twelve who'd followed hoddan pouredin what would have been a murderous fire if they'd been shooting bullets, but was no worsethan devastating as matters stood. there were screams and flight and utterlyhopeless defiances by sword-armed and spear-armed men. in instants hoddan went limping intothe castle with thal by his side, searching for fani. ghek had not fallen at the firstfire. he vanished, and the castle was plainly fallen and he made no attempt to lead resistanceagainst its invaders. hoddan's men went raging happily through corridors and halls as theycame to them. they used their stun-pistols

with zest and at such close quarters withconsiderable effect. hoddan heard fani scream angrily and he and thal went swiftly to see.they came upon the young lord ghek trying to let fani down out of a window on a rope.he undoubtedly intended to follow her and complete his abduction on the run. but fanibit him, and hoddan said vexedly: "look here! it seems that i'm disgraced ifi don't fight you somehow—" the young lord ghek rushed him, sword out,eyes blazing in a fine frenzy of despair. hoddan brought him down with a buzz of thestun-gun. one of hoddan's followers came hunting forhim. "sir," he sputtered, "we got the garrisoncornered in their quarters, and we've been

picking them off through the windows, andthey think they're dropping dead and want to surrender. shall we let 'em?" "by all means," hoddan said irritably. "andthal, go get something heavier than a nightgown for the lady fani to wear, and then do whatplundering is practical. but i want to be out of here in half an hour. understand?" "i'll attend to the costume," said the ladyfani vengefully. "you cut his throat while i'm getting dressed." she nodded at the unconscious lord ghek onthe pavement. she disappeared through a door nearby. hoddan could guess that ghek wouldhave prepared something elaborate in the way

of a trousseau for the bride he was to carryscreaming from her home. somehow it was the sort of thing a darthian would do. now faniwould enjoyably attire herself in the best of it while— "thal," said hoddan, "help me get this characterinto a closet somewhere. he's not to be killed. i don't like him, but at this moment i don'tlike anybody very much, and i won't play favorites." thal dragged the insensible young noblemaninto the next room. hoddan locked the door and pocketed the key as fani came into viewagain. she was splendidly attired, now, in brocade and jewels. ghek had evidently hopedto placate her after marriage by things of that sort and had spent lavishly for them.

now, throughout the castle there were manyand diverse noises. sometimes—not often—there was still the crackling hum of a stun-pistol.there were many more exuberant shoutings. they apparently had to do with loot. therewere some squealings in female voices, but many more gigglings. "i need not say," said the lady fani withdignity, "that i thank you very much. but i do say so." "you're quite welcome," said hoddan politely. "and what are you going to do now?" "i imagine," said hoddan, "that we'll go downinto the courtyard where our horses are. i

gave my men half an hour to loot in. duringthat half hour i shall sit down on something which will, i hope, remain perfectly still.and i may," he added morbidly, "eat an apple. i've had nothing to eat since i landed ondarth. people don't want to commit themselves to not cutting my throat. but after half anhour we'll leave." the lady fani looked sympathetic. "but the castle's surrendered to you," sheprotested. "you hold it! aren't you going to try to keep it?" "there are a good many unpleasant charactersout yonder," said hoddan, waving his hand at the great outdoors, "who've reason to dislikeme very much. they'll be anxious to express

their emotions, when they feel up to it. iwant to dodge them. and presently the people in this castle will realize that even stun-pistolscan't keep on shooting indefinitely here. i don't want to be around when it occurs tothem." he offered his arm with a reasonably grandair and went limping with her down to the courtyard just inside the gate. two of donloris' retainers staggered into view as they arrived, piling up plunder which ranged froma quarter keg of wine to a mass of frothy stuff which must be female garments. theywent away and other men arrived loaded down with their own accumulations of loot. someof the local inhabitants looked on with uneasy indignation.

hoddan found a bench and sat down. he conspicuouslydisplayed one of the weapons which had captured the castle. ghek's defeated retainers lookedat him darkly. "bring me something to eat," commanded hoddan."then if you bring fresh horses for my men, and one extra for each to carry his plunderon, i'll take them away. i'll even throw in the lord ghek, who is now unharmed but withhis life in the balance. otherwise—" he moved the pistol suggestively. the normalinhabitants of ghek's castle moved away, discussing the situation in subdued voices. the lady fani sat down proudly on the benchbeside him. "you are wonderful!" she said with conviction.

"i used to cherish that illusion myself,"said hoddan. "but nobody before in all darthian historyhas ever fought twenty men, and then thirty men, and destroyed an ambush, and captureda castle, all in one day!" "and without a meal," said hoddan darkly,"and with a lot of blisters!" he considered. somebody came running withbread and cheese and wine. he bit into the bread and cheese. after a moment he said,his mouth full: "i once saw a man perform the unparalleledfeat of jumping over nine barrels placed in a row. it had never been done before. buti didn't envy him. i never wanted to jump over nine barrels in a row! in the same way,i never especially wanted to fight other men

or break up ambushes or capture castles. iwant to do what i want to do, not what other people happen to admire." "then what do you want to do?" she asked admiringly. "i'm not sure now," said hoddan gloomily.he took a fresh bite. "but a little while ago i wanted to do some interesting and usefulthings in electronics, and get reasonably rich, and marry a delightful girl, and becomea prominent citizen on walden. i think i'll settle for another planet, now." "my father will make you rich," said the girlproudly. "you saved me from being married to ghek!"

hoddan shook his head. "i've got my doubts," he said. "he had a schemeto import a lot of stun-pistols and arm his retainers with them. then he meant to rushthe spaceport and have me set up a broadcast-power unit that'd keep them charged all the time.then he'd sit back and enjoy life. holding the spaceport, nobody else could get stun-weapons,and nobody could resist his retainers who had 'em. so he'd be top man on darth. he'dhave exactly as much power as he chose to seize. i think he cherished that little idea,—andi've given advance publicity to stun-pistols. now he hasn't a ghost of a chance of pullingit off. i'm afraid he'll be displeased with "i can take care of that!" said fani confidently.she did not question that her father would

be displeased. "maybe you can," said hoddan, "but thoughhe's kept a daughter he's lost a dream. and that's bereavement! i know!" horses came plodding into the courtyard withghek's retainers driving them. they were anxious to get rid of their conquerors. hoddan's mencame trickling back, with armsful of plunder to add to the piles they'd previously gathered.thal took charge, commanding the exchange of saddles from tired to fresh horses andthat the booty be packed on the extra mounts. it was time. nine of the dozen looters wereat work on the task when there was a tumult back in the castle. yellings and the clashof steel. hoddan shook his head.

"bad! somebody's pistol went empty and thelocal boys found it out. now we'll have to fight some more—no." he beckoned to a listening, tense, resentfulinhabitant of the castle. he held up the key of the room in which he'd locked young ghek. "now open the castle gate," he commanded,"and fetch out my last three men, and we'll leave without setting fire to anything. thelord ghek would like it that way. he's locked up in a room that's particularly inflammable." the last statement was a guess, only, butghek's retainer looked horrified. he bellowed. there was a subtle change in the bitterlyhostile atmosphere. men came angrily to help

load the spare horses. hoddan's last threemen came out of a corridor, wiping blood from various scratches and complaining plaintivelythat their pistols had shot empty and they'd had to defend themselves with knives. three minutes later the cavalcade rode outof the castle gate and away into the darkness. hoddan had arrived here when ghek was insidewith fani as his prisoner, when there were only a dozen men without and at least a hundredinside to defend the walls. and the castle was considered impregnable. in half an hour hoddan's followers had takenthe castle, rescued fani, looted it superficially, gotten fresh horses for themselves and spareones for their plunder, and were headed away

again. in only one respect were they worseoff than when they arrived. some stun-pistols were empty. hoddan searched the sky and pieced togetherthe star-pattern he'd noted before. "hold it!" he said sharply to thal. "we don'tgo back the same way we came! the gang that ambushed us will be stirring around again,and we haven't got full stun-pistols now! we make a wide circle around those characters!" "why?" demanded thal. "there are only so manypasses. the only other one is three times as long. and it is disgraceful to avoid afight—" "thal!" snapped an icy voice from beside hoddan,"you have an order! obey it!"

even in the darkness, hoddan could see thaljump. "yes, my lady fani," said thal shakily. "butwe go a long distance roundabout." the direction of motion through the nightnow changed. the long line of horses moved in deepest darkness, lessened only by thelight of many stars. even so, in time one's eyes grew accustomed and it was a glamorousspectacle—twenty-eight beasts moving through dark defiles and over steep passes among therugged, ragged hills. from any one spot they seemed at once to swagger and to slink, swayingas they moved on and vanished into obscurity. the small wild things in the night pausedaffrightedly in their scurryings until they had gone far away.

fani said in a soft voice: "this is nice!" "what's nice about it?" demanded hoddan. "riding like this," said fani enthusiastically,"with men who have fought for me to guard me in the darkness, with the leader who hasrescued me by my side, underneath the stars— it's a delicious feeling!" "you're used to riding horseback," said hoddandourly. he rode on, while mountains stabbed skywardand the pass they followed wound this way and that and he knew that it was a very roundaboutway indeed. and he had unpleasing prospects

to make it seem less satisfying, even, thanit would have been otherwise. but they came, at last, to a narrow defilewhich opened out before them and there were no more mountains ahead, but only foothills.and there, far and far away, they could see the sky as vaguely brighter. as they wenton, indeed, a glory of red and golden colorings appeared at the horizon. and out of that magnificence three brightlights suddenly darted. in strict v-formation, they flashed from the sunrise toward the west.they went overhead, more brilliant than the brightest stars, and when partway down tothe horizon they suddenly winked out. "what on earth are they?" demanded fani. "inever saw anything like that before!"

"they're spaceships in orbit," said hoddan.he was as astounded as the girl, but for a different reason. "i thought they'd be landedby now!" it changed everything. he could not see whatthe change amounted to, but change there was. for one thing— "we're going to the spaceport," he told thalcurtly. "we'll recharge our stun-pistols there. i thought those ships had landed. they haven't.now we'll see if we can keep them aloft! how far to the landing grid?" "you insisted," complained thal, "that wenot go back to don loris' castle by the way we left it. there are only so many passesthrough the hills. the only other one is very

long. we are only four miles—" "then we head there right now!" snapped hoddan."and we step up the speed!" he barked commands to his followers. thal,puzzled but in dread of acid comment from fani, bustled up and down the line of men,insisting on a faster pace. and the members of the cavalcade had not pushed these animalsas they had their first. even the lead horses, loaded with loot, managed to get up to a respectableambling trot. the sunrise proceeded. dew upon the straggly grass became visible. separatedrops appeared as gems upon the grass blades, and then began gradually to vanish as thesun's disk showed itself. then the angular metal framework of the landing grid rose darkagainst the sunrise sky.

when they rode up to it. hoddan reflectedthat it was the only really civilized structure on the planet. architecturally it was surelythe least pleasing. it had been built when darth was first settled on, and when ideasof commerce and interstellar trade seemed reasonable. it was half a mile high and builtof massive metal beams. it loomed hugely overhead when the double file of shaggy horses trottedunder its lower arches and across the grass-grown space within it. hoddan headed purposefullyfor the control shed. there was no sign of movement anywhere. the steeply gabled roofsof the nearby town showed only the fluttering of tiny birds. no smoke rose from chimneys.yet the slanting morning sunshine was bright. as hoddan actually reached the control shed,he saw a sleepy man in the act of putting

a key in the door. he dismounted within feetof that man, who turned and blinked sleepily at him, and then immediately looked the reverseof cordial. it was the red-headed man he'd stung with a stun-pistol the day before. "i've come back," said hoddan, "for a fewmore kilowatts." the red-headed man swore angrily. "hush!" said hoddan gently. "the lady faniis with us." the red-headed man jerked his head aroundand paled. thal glowered at him. others of don loris' retainers shifted their positionssignificantly, to make their oversized belt-knives handier.

"we'll come in," said hoddan. "thal, collectthe pistols and bring them inside." fani swung lightly to the ground and followedhim in. she looked curiously at the cables and instrument boards and switches inside.on one wall a red light pulsed, and went out, and pulsed again. the red-headed man lookedat it. "you're being called," said hoddan. "don'tanswer it." the red-headed man scowled. thal came in withan armful of stun-pistols in various stages of discharge. hoddan briskly broke the buttof one of his own and presented it to the terminals he'd used the day before. "he's not to touch anything, thal," said hoddan.to the red-headed man he observed, "i suspect

that call's been coming in all night. somethingwas in orbit at sundown. you closed up shop and went home early, eh?" "why not?" rasped the red-headed man. "there'sonly one ship a month!" "sometimes," said hoddan, "there are specials.but i commend your negligence. it was probably good for me." he charged one pistol, and snapped its buttshut, and snapped open another, and charged it. there was no difficulty, of course. inminutes all the pistols he'd brought from walden were ready for use again. he tucked away as many as he could convenientlycarry on his person. he handed the rest to

thal. he went competently to the pulsing call-signal.he put headphones to his ears. he listened. his expression became extremely strange, asif he did not quite understand nor wholly believe what he heard. "odd," he said mildly. he considered for amoment or two. then he rummaged around in the drawers of desks. he found wire clips.he began to snip wires in half. the red-headed man started forward automatically. "take care of him, thal," said hoddan. he cut the microwave receiver free of itswires and cables. he lifted it experimentally and opened part of its case to make sure thethermo battery that would power it in an emergency

was there and in working order. it was. "put this on a horse, thal," commanded hoddan."we're taking it up to don loris'." the red-headed man's mouth dropped open. hesaid stridently: "hey! you can't do that!" hoddan turned uponhim and he said sourly: "all right, you can. i'm not trying to stop you with all thosehard cases outside!" "you can build another in a week," said hoddankindly. "you must have spare parts." thal carried the communicator outside. hoddanopened a cabinet, threw switches, and painstakingly cut and snipped and snipped at a tangle ofwires within. "just your instrumentation," he explainedto the appalled red-headed man. "you won't

use the grid until you've got this fixed,too. a few days of harder work than you're used to. that's all!" he led the way out again, and on the way explainedto fani: "pretty old-fashioned job, this grid. theymake simpler ones nowadays. they'll be able to repair it, though, in time. now we go backto your father's castle. he may not be pleased, but he should be mollified." he saw fani mount lightly into her own saddleand shook his head gloomily. he climbed clumsily into his own. they moved off to return todon loris' stronghold. hoddan suffered. they reached the castle before noon, and thesight of the lady fani riding beside a worn-out

hoddan was productive of enthusiasm and loudcheers. the loot displayed by the returned wayfarers increased the rejoicing. there wasenvy among the men who had stayed behind. there were respectfully admiring looks castupon hoddan. he had displayed, in furnishing opportunities for plunder, the most-admiredquality a leader of feudal fighting men could show. the lady fani beamed as she and thal and hoddan,all very dusty and travel-stained, presented themselves to her father in the castle's greathall. "here's your daughter, sir," said hoddan,and yawned. "i hope there won't be any further trouble with ghek. we took his castle andlooted it a little and brought back some extra

horses. then we went to the spaceport. i rechargedmy stun-pistols and put the landing grid out of order for the time being. i brought awaythe communicator there." he yawned again. "there's something highly improper going on,up just beyond atmosphere. there are three ships up there in orbit, and they were tryingto call the spaceport in nonregulation fashion, and it's possible that some of your neighborswould be interested. so i postponed everything until i could get some sleep. it seemed tome that when better skulduggeries are concocted, that don loris and his associates ought toconcoct them. and if you'll excuse me—" he moved away, practically dead on his feet.if he had been accustomed to horseback riding, he wouldn't have been so exhausted. but nowhe yawned, and yawned, and thal took him to

a room quite different from the guest-room-dungeonto which he'd been taken the night before. he noted that the door, this time, openedinward. he braced chairs against it to make sure that nobody could open it from without.he lay down and slept heavily. he was waked by loud poundings. he rousedhimself enough to say sleepily: "whaddyawant?" "the lights in the sky!" cried fani's voiceoutside the door. "the ones you say are spaceships! it's sunset again, and i just saw them. butthere aren't three, now. now there are nine!" "all right," said hoddan. he lay down hishead again and thrust it into his pillow. then he was suddenly very wide awake indeed.he sat up with a start.

nine spaceships? that wasn't possible! thatwould be a space fleet! and there were no space fleets! walden would certainly havenever sent more than one ship to demand his surrender to its police. the space patrolnever needed more than one ship anywhere. commerce wouldn't cause ships to travel incompany. piracy— there couldn't be a pirate fleet! there'd never be enough loot anywhereto keep it in operation. nine spaceships at one time—traveling in orbit around a primitiveplanet like darth—a fleet of spaceships. it couldn't happen! hoddan couldn't conceiveof such a thing. but a recently developed pessimism suggested that since everythingelse, to date, had been to his disadvantage, this was probably a catastrophe also.

he groaned and lay down to sleep again.vi when frantic bangings on the propped-shutdoor awakened him next morning, he confusedly imagined that they were noises in the communicatorheadphones, and until he heard his name called tried drearily to make sense of them. but suddenly he opened his eyes. somebodybanged on the door once more. a voice cried angrily: "bron hoddan! wake up or i'll go away andlet whatever happens to you happen! wake up!" it was the voice of the lady fani, at onceindignant and tearful and solicitous and angry. he rolled out of bed and found himself dressed.he hadn't slept the full night. at one time

he couldn't rest for thinking about the soundsin the communicator when he listened at the spaceport. he listened again, and what heheard made him get his clothes on for action. that was when he heard a distinctly waldenianvoice, speaking communications speech with crisp distinctness, calling the landing grid.the other voices were not waldenian ones and he grew dizzy trying to figure them out. buthe was clothed and ready to do whatever proved necessary when he realized that he had thelanding grid receiver, that there would be no reception even of the waldenian call untilthe landing grid crew had built another out of spare parts in store, and even then couldn'tdo much until they'd painfully sorted out and re-spliced all the tangled wires thathoddan had cut. that had to be done before

the grid could be used again. he'd gone back to sleep while he tried tomake sense of things. now, long after daybreak, he shook himself and made sure a stun-pistolwas handy. then he said: "hello. i'm awake. what's up? why all thenoise?" "come out of there!" cried fani's voice, simultaneouslyexasperated and filled with anxiety. "things are happening! somebody's here from walden!they want you!" hoddan could not believe it. it was too unlikely.but he opened the door and thal came in, and fani followed. "good morning," said hoddan automatically.

thal said mournfully: "a bad morning, bron hoddan! a bad morning!men from walden came riding over the hills—" "how many?" "two," said fani angrily. "a fat man in auniform, and a young man who looks like he wants to cry. they had an escort of retainersfrom one of my father's neighbors. they were stopped at the gate, of course, and they senta written message in to my father, and he had them brought inside right away!" "they probably said that i'm a criminal andthat i should be sent back to walden. how'd they get down? the landing grid isn't working."

fani said viciously: "they landed in something that used rockets.it came down close to a castle over that way—only six or seven miles from the spaceport. theyasked for you. they said you'd have landed from the last liner from walden. and becauseyou and thal fought so splendidly—why, everybody's talking about you. so the chieftain over thereaccepted a present of money from them, and gave them horses as a return gift, and sentthem here with a guard. thal talked to the guards. the men from walden have promisedhuge gifts of money if they help take you back to the thing that uses rockets." "i suspect," said hoddan, "that it would bea spaceboat—a lifeboat. hm-m-m.... yes.

with a built-in tool-steel cell to keep mefrom telling anybody how to make—" he stopped and grimaced. "if they had time to build onein, that's certain! they'd take me to the spaceport in a sound-proofed can and i'd behauled back to walden in it. fine!" "what are you going to do?" asked fani anxiously. hoddan's ideas were not clear. but darth wasnot a healthy place for him. it was extremely likely, for example, that don loris wouldfeel that the very bad jolt he'd given that astute schemer's plans, by using stun-pistolsat the spaceport, had been neatly canceled out by his rescue of fani. he would regardhoddan with a mingled gratitude and aversion that would amount to calm detachment. donloris could not be counted on as a really

warm personal friend. on the other hand, the social system of darthwas not favorable to a stranger with an already lurid reputation for fighting, but whose weaponswould be useless unless frequently recharged—and who couldn't count on that as a steady thing. as a practical matter, his best bet was probablyto investigate the nine inexplicable ships overhead. they hadn't co-operated with thewaldenians. it could be inferred that no confidential relationship existed up there. it was possiblethat the nine ships and the waldenians didn't even know of each other's presence. thereis a lot of room in space. if both called on ship-frequency and listened on ground-frequency,they would not have picked up each others'

summons to the ground. "you've got to do something!" insisted fani."i saw father talking to them! he looked happy, and he never looks happy unless he's planningsome skulduggery!" "i think," said hoddan, "that i'll have somebreakfast, if i may. as soon as i fasten up my ship bag." "if anything happens to you, something willhappen to me too, because i helped you." "breakfast first," said hoddan. "that, asi understand it, should make it disgraceful for your father to have my throat cut. butbeyond that—" he said gloomily. "thal, get a couple of horses outside the wall. we mayneed to ride somewhere. i'm very much afraid

we will. but first i'd like to have some breakfast." fani said disappointedly: "but aren't you going to face them? the menfrom walden? you could shoot them!" "it wouldn't solve anything. anyhow a practicalman like your father won't sell me out before he's sure i can't pay off better. i'll beton a conference with me before he makes a deal." fani stamped her foot. "outrageous! think what you saved me from!" but she did not question the possibility.hoddan observed:

"a practical man can always make what he wantsto do look like a noble sacrifice of personal inclinations to the welfare of the community.i've decided that i've got to be practical myself, and that's one of the rules. how aboutbreakfast?" he strapped the ship bag shut on the stun-pistolshis pockets would not hold. he made a minor adjustment to the space communicator. it wasnot ruined, but nobody else could use it without much labor finding out what he'd done. thiswas the sort of thing his grandfather on zan would have advised. his grandfather's viewswere explicit. "helping one's neighbor," he'd said frequentlyin hoddan's hearing while hoddan was a youth, "is all right as a two-way job. but maybehe's laying for you. you get a chance to fix

him so he can't do you no harm and you'rea lot better off and he's a hell of a lot better neighbor!" this was definitely true of the men from walden.hoddan guessed that derec was one of them. the other would represent the police or theplanetary government. it was probably just as true of don loris and others. hoddan found himself disapproving of the waythe cosmos was designed. even though presently he sat at breakfast high up on the battlements,and fani looked at him with interesting anxiety, he was filled with forebodings. the futurelooked dark. yet what he asked of fate and chance was so simple! he asked only a careerand riches and a delightful girl to marry

and the admiration of his fellow-citizens.trivial things! but it looked like he'd have to do battle for even such minor gifts ofdestiny! fani watched him breakfast. "i don't understand you," she complained."anybody else would be proud of what he'd done and angry with my father. or don't youthink he'll act ungratefully?" "of course i do!" said hoddan. "then why aren't you angry?" "i'm hungry," said hoddan. "and you take it for granted that i want tobe properly grateful," said fani in one breath,

"and yet you haven't shown the least appreciationof my getting two horses over in that patch of woodland yonder"—she pointed and hoddannodded—"and having thal there with orders to serve you faithfully—" she stopped short. don loris appeared, beaming,at the top of the steps leading here from the great hall where conferences took place.he regarded hoddan benignly. "this is a very bad business, my dear fellow,"he said benevolently. "has fani told you of the people who arrived from walden in searchof you? they tell me terrible things about you!" "yes," said hoddan. he prepared a roll forbiting. he said: "one of them, i think, is

named derec. he's to identify me so good moneyisn't wasted paying for the wrong man. the other man's police, isn't he?" he reflecteda moment. "if i were you, i'd start talking at a million credits. you might get half that." he bit into the roll as don loris looked shocked. "do you think," he asked indignantly, "thati would give up the rescuer of my daughter to emissaries from a foreign planet, to belocked in a dungeon for life?" "not in those words," conceded hoddan. "butafter all, despite your deep gratitude to me, there are such things as one's duty tohumanity as a whole. and while it would cause you bitter anguish if someone dear to yourepresented a danger to millions of innocent

women and children—still, under such circumstancesyou might feel it necessary to do violence to your own emotions." don loris looked at him with abrupt suspicion.hoddan waved the roll. "moreover," he observed, "gratitude for actionsdone on darth does not entitle you to judge of my actions on walden. while you might andeven should feel obliged to defend me in all things i have done on darth, your obligationto me does not let you deny that i may have acted less defensibly on walden." don loris looked extremely uneasy. "i may have thought something like that,"he admitted. "but—"

"so that," said hoddan, "while your debt tome cannot and should not be overlooked, nevertheless"—hoddan put the roll into his mouth and spoke lessclearly—"you feel that you should give consideration to the claims of walden to inquire into myactions while there." he chewed, and swallowed, and said gravely: "and can i make deathrays?" don loris brightened. he drew a deep breathof relief. he said complainingly: "i don't see why you're so sarcastic! yes.that is a rather important question. you see, on walden they don't know how to. they sayyou do. they're very anxious that nobody should be able to. but while in unscrupulous handssuch an instrument of destruction would be

most unfortunate ... ah ... under proper control—" "yours," said hoddan. "say—ours," said don loris hopefully. "withmy experience of men and affairs, and my loyal and devoted retainers—" "and cozy dungeons," said hoddan. he wipedhis mouth. "no." don loris started violently. "no, what?" "no deathrays," said hoddan. "i can't make'em. nobody can. if they could be made, some star somewhere would be turning them out,or some natural phenomenon would let them

loose from time to time. if there were suchthings as deathrays, all living things would have died, or else would have adjusted totheir weaker manifestations and developed immunity so they wouldn't be deathrays anylonger. as a matter of fact, that's probably been the case, some time in the past. so faras the gadget goes that they're talking about, it's been in use for half a century in thecetis cluster. nobody's died of it yet." don loris looked bitterly disappointed. "that's the truth?" he asked unhappily. "honestly?that's your last word on it?" "much," said hoddan, "much as i hate to spoilthe prospects of profitable skulduggery, that's my last word and it's true."

"but those men from walden are very anxious!"protested don loris. "there was no ship available, so their government got a liner that normallywouldn't stop here to take an extra lifeboat aboard. it came out of overdrive in this solarsystem, let out the lifeboat, and went on its way again. those two men are extremelyanxious—" "ambitious, maybe," said hoddan. "they'reprepared to pay to overcome your sense of gratitude to me. naturally, you want all thetraffic will bear. i think you can get half a million." don loris looked suspicious again. "you don't seem worried," he said fretfully."i don't understand you!"

"i have a secret," said hoddan. "what is it?" "it will develop," said hoddan. don loris hesitated, essayed to speak, andthought better of it. he shrugged his shoulders and went slowly back to the flight of stonesteps. he descended. the lady fani started to wring her hands. then she said hopefully: "what's your secret?" "that your father thinks i have one," saidhoddan. "thanks for the breakfast. should i walk out the gate, or—"

"it's closed," said the lady fani forlornly."but i have a rope for you. you can go down over the wall." "thanks," said hoddan. "it's been a pleasureto rescue you." "will you—" fani hesitated. "i've neverknown anybody like you before. will you ever come back?" hoddan shook his head at her. "once you asked me if i'd fight for you, andlook what it got me into! no commitments." he glanced along the battlements. there wasa fairly large coil of rope in view. he picked up his bag and went over to it. he checkedthe fastening of one end and tumbled the other

over the wall. ten minutes later he trudged up to thal, waitingin the nearby woodland with two horses. "the lady fani," he said, "has the kind ofbrains i like. she pulled up the rope again." thal did not comment. he watched moroselyas hoddan made the perpetually present ship bag fast to his saddle and then distastefullyclimbed aboard the horse. "what are you going to do?" asked thal unhappily."i didn't make a parting-present to don loris, so i'll be disgraced if he finds out i helpedyou. and i don't know where to take you." "where," asked hoddan, "did those charactersfrom walden come down?" thal told him. at the castle of a considerablefeudal chieftain, on the plain some four miles

from the mountain range and six miles thisside of the spaceport. "we ride there," said hoddan. "liberty issaid to be sweet, but the man who said that didn't have blisters from a saddle. let'sgo." they rode away. there would be no immediatepursuit, and possibly none at all. don loris had left hoddan at breakfast on the battlements.the lady fani would make as much confusion over his disappearance as she could. but there'dbe no search for him until don loris had made his deal. hoddan was sure that fani's father would havean enjoyable morning. he would relish the bargaining session. he'd explain in greatdetail how valuable had been hoddan's service

to him, in rescuing fani from an abductorwho would have been an intolerable son-in-law. he'd grow almost tearful as he described hisaffection for hoddan—how he loved his daughter—as he observed grievedly that they were askinghim to betray the man who had saved for him the solace of his old age. he would mentionalso that the price they offered was an affront to his paternal affection and his dignityas prince of this, baron of that, lord of the other thing and claimant to the dukedomof something-or-other. either they'd come up or the deal was off! but meanwhile hoddan and thal rode industriouslytoward the place from which those emissaries had come.

all was tranquil. all was calm. once theysaw a dust cloud, and thal turned aside to a providential wooded copse, in which theyremained while a cavalcade went by. thal explained that it was a feudal chieftain on his wayto the spaceport town. it was simple discretion for them not to be observed, said thal, becausethey had great reputations as fighting men. whoever defeated them would become prominentat once. so somebody might try to pick a quarrel under one of the finer points of etiquettewhen it would be disgrace to use anything but standard darthian implements for massacre.hoddan admitted that he did not feel quarrelsome. they rode on after a time, and in late afternoonthe towers and battlements of the castle they sought appeared. the ground here was onlygently rolling. they approached it with caution,

following the reverse slope of hills, anddry stream-beds, and at last penetrating horse-high brush to the point where they could see itclearly. if hoddan had been a student of early terrestrialhistory, he might have remarked upon the re-emergence of ancient architectural forms to match therevival of primitive social systems. as it was, he noted in this feudal castle the useof bastions for flanking fire upon attackers, he recognized the value of battlements forthe protection of defenders while allowing them to shoot, and the tricky positioningof sally ports. he even grasped the reason for the massive, stark, unornamented keep.but his eyes did not stay on the castle for long. he saw the spaceboat in which derecand his more authoritative companion had arrived.

it lay on the ground a half mile from thecastle walls. it was a clumsy, obese, flattened shape some forty feet long and nearly fifteenwide. the ground about it was scorched where it had descended upon its rocket flames. therewere several horses tethered near it, and men who were plainly retainers of the nearbycastle reposed in its shade. hoddan reined in. "here we part," he told thal. "when we firstmet i enabled you to pick the pockets of a good many of your fellow-countrymen. i neverasked for my split of the take. i expect you to remember me with affection." thal clasped both of hoddan's hands in his.

"if you ever return," he said with mournfulwarmth, "i am your friend!" hoddan nodded and rode out of the brushwoodtoward the spaceboat—the lifeboat—that had landed the emissaries from walden. thatit landed so close to the spaceport, of course, was no accident. it was known on walden thathoddan had taken space passage to darth. he'd have landed only two days before his pursuerscould reach the planet. and on a roadless, primitive world like darth he couldn't havegotten far from the spaceport. so his pursuers would have landed close by, also. but it musthave taken considerable courage. when the landing grid failed to answer, it must haveseemed likely that hoddan's deathrays had been at work.

here and now, though, there was no uneasiness.hoddan rode heavily, without haste, through the slanting sunshine. he was seen from adistance and watched without apprehension by the loafing guards about the boat. he lookedhot and thirsty. he was both. so the posted guard merely looked at him without too muchinterest when he brought his dusty mount up to the shadow the lifeboat cast, and apparentlydecided that there wasn't room to get into it. he grunted a greeting and looked at them speculatively. "those two characters from walden," he observed,"sent me to get something from this thing, here. don loris told 'em i was a very honestman."

he painstakingly looked like a very honestman. after a moment there were responsive grins. "if there's anything missing when i startback," said hoddan, "i can't imagine how it happened! none of you would take anything.oh, no! i bet you'll blame it on me!" he shook his head and said "tsk. tsk. tsk." one of the guards sat up and said appreciatively: "but it's locked. good." "being an honest man," said hoddan amiably,"they told me how to unlock it." he got off his horse. he removed the bag fromhis saddle. he went into the grateful shadow

of the metal hull. he paused and mopped hisface and then went to the entrance port. he put his hand on the turning bar. then he painstakinglypushed in the locking-stud with his other hand. of course the handle turned. the boatport opened. the two from walden would have thought everything safe because it was underguard. on walden that protection would have been enough. on darth, the spaceboat had notbeen looted simply because locks, there, were not made with separate vibration-checks tokeep vibration from loosening them. on spaceboats such a precaution was usual. "give me two minutes," said hoddan over hisshoulder. "i have to get what they sent me for. after that everybody starts even."

he entered and closed the door behind him.then he locked it. by the nature of things it is as needful to be able to lock a spaceboatfrom the inside as it is unnecessary to lock it from without. he looked things over. standard equipmenteverywhere. he checked everything, even to the fuel supply. there were knockings on theport. he continued to inspect. he turned on the visionscreens, which provided the controlroom—indeed, all the boat—with an unobstructed view in all directions. he was satisfied. the knocks became bangings. something approachingindignation could be deduced. the guards around the spaceboat felt that hoddan was takingan unfair amount of time to pick the cream

of the loot inside. he got a glass of water. it was excellent.a second. the bangings became violent hammerings. hoddan seated himself leisurely in the pilot'sseat and turned small knobs. he waited. he touched a button. there was a mildly thunderousbang outside, and the lifeboat reacted as if to a slight shock. the visionscreens showeda cloud of dust at the spaceboat's stern, roused by a deliberate explosion in the rockettubes. it also showed the retainers in full flight. he waited until they were in safety and madethe standard take-off preparations. a horrific

roaring started up outside. he touched controlsand a monstrous weight pushed him back in his seat. the rocket swung, and lifted, andshot skyward with greater acceleration than before. it went up at a lifeboat's full fall-likerate of climb, leaving a trail of blue-white flame behind it. all the surface of darthseemed to contract swiftly below him. the spaceport and the town rushed toward a spotbeneath the spaceboat's tail. they shrank and shrank. he saw other places. mountains.castles. he saw don loris' stronghold. higher, he saw the sea. the sky turned purple. it went black withspecks of starshine in it. hoddan swung to

a westward course and continued to rise, watchingthe star-images as they shifted on the screens. the image of the sun, of course, was automaticallydiminished so that it was not dazzling. the rockets continued to roar, though in a minorfashion because there was no longer air outside in which a bellow could develop. hoddan painstakingly made use of those rule-of-thumbmethods of astrogation which his piratical forebears had developed and which a boy onzan absorbed without being aware. he wanted an orbit around darth. he didn't want to taketime to try to compute it. so he watched the star-images ahead and astern. if the starsahead rose above the planet's edge faster than those behind sank down below it—hewould be climbing. if the stars behind sank

down faster than those ahead rose up—hewould be descending. if all the stars rose equally he'd be climbing straight up, andif they all dropped equally he'd be moving straight down. it was not a complex method,and it worked. presently he relaxed. he sped swiftly backpast midday and toward the sunrise line on darth. this was the reverse of a normal orbit,but it was the direction followed by the ships up here. he hoped his orbit was lower thantheirs. if it was, he'd overtake them from behind. if he were higher, they'd overtakehim. he turned on the space phone. its reception-indicatorwas piously placed at "ground." he shifted it to "space," so that it would pick up callsgoing planetward, instead of listening vainly

for replies from the nonoperative landinggrid. instantly voices boomed in his ears. manyvoices. an impossibly large number of voices. many, many, many more than nine transmitterswere in operation now! "idiot!" said a voice in quiet passion, "sheeroff or you'll get in our drive-field!" a high-pitched voice said; "... and group two take second-orbitposition—" somebody bellowed: "but why don't they answer?" and another voice still saidformally: "reporting group five, but four ships are staying behind with tanker toya,which is having stabilizer trouble...." hoddan's eyes opened very wide. he turneddown the sound while he tried to think. but there wasn't anything to think. he'd comealoft to scout three ships that had turned

to nine, because he was in such a fix on darththat anything strange might be changed into something useful. but this was more than nineships—itself an impossibly large space fleet. there was no reason why ships of space shouldever travel together. there were innumerable reasons why they shouldn't. there was a limitto the number of ships that could be accommodated at any spaceport in the galaxy. there wasno point, no profit, no purpose in a number of ships traveling together— darth's sunrise-line appeared far ahead. thelifeboat would soon cease to be a bright light in the sky, now. the sun's image vanishedfrom the rear screens. the boat went hurtling onward through the blackness of the planet'sshadow while voices squabbled, and wrangled,

and formally reported, and now and again oneadmonished disputants to a proper discipline of language. during the period of darkness, hoddan rackedhis brains for the vaguest of ideas on why so many ships should appear about an obscureand unimportant world like darth. presently the sunset line appeared ahead, and far awayhe saw moving lights which were the hulls of the volubly communicating vessels. he stared,blankly. there were tens— scores— he was forced to guess at the stark impossibilityof more than a hundred spacecraft in view. as the boat rushed onward he had to raisethe guess. it couldn't be, but— he turned on the outside telescope, and theimage on its screen was more incredible than

the voices and the existence of the fleetitself. the scope focused first on a bulging, monster, antiquated freighter of a designthat had not been built for a hundred years. the second view was of a passenger liner withthe elaborate ornamentation that in past generations was considered suitable for space. there wasa bulk-cargo ship, with no emergency rockets at all and crews' quarters in long blistersbuilt outside the gigantic tank which was the ship itself. there was a needle-sharpspace yacht. more freighters, with streaks of rust on their sides where they had lainaground for tens of years.... the fleet was an anomaly, and each of itscomponent parts was separately a freak. it was a gathering-together of all the outmodedand obsolete hulks and monstrosities of space.

one would have to scavenge half the galaxyto bring together so many crazy, over-age derelicts that should have been in junk yards. then hoddan drew an explosive deep breath.it was suddenly clear what the fleet was and what its reason must be. why it stopped herecould not yet be guessed, but— hoddan watched absorbedly. he couldn't knowwhat was toward, but there was some emergency. it could be in the line of what an electronicengineer could handle. if so—why—it could mean an opportunity to accomplish great things,and grow rich, and probably marry some delightful girl and be a great man somewhere—an assortmentof ambitions one could not easily gratify on zan, or walden, or darth.vii

the spaceboat floated on upon a collision-coursewith the arriving fleet. that would not mean, of course, actual contact with any of theimprobable vessels themselves. crowded as the sunlit specks might seem from darth'snight-side shadow, they were sufficiently separated. it was more than likely that evenwith ten-mile intervals the ships would be considered much too crowded. but they camepouring out of emptiness to go into a swirling, plainly pre-intended orbit about the planetfrom which hoddan had risen less than an hour there was inevitable confusion, though, andthe spacephone proved it. there were disputes between freakish ships when craft with theastrogational qualities of washtubs tried to keep assigned positions, and failed, andthere were squabbles when ships had to pass

close together. one had to shut off its drive-fieldto keep from blowing the fuses of both. but there were some ships which proceededquietly to their positions and others which did the same after tumult amounting to rebellion.and naturally there were a few others which seemed incapable of co-operation with anybody.they went careening through the other ships' paths in what must have seemed to the planet'ssunset area like a most unlikely dancing of brand-new stars. it was a gigantic traffic tangle, and hoddan'sboat drifted toward and into it. he'd counted a hundred ships long before. his count nowpassed two hundred and continued. before he gave up he'd numbered two hundred forty-sevenspace-oddities swarming to make a whirling

band—a ring—around the planet darth. he was fairly sure that he knew what theywere, now. but he could not possibly guess where they came from. and most mysteriousof all was the question of why they'd come out of faster-than-light drive to make ofthemselves a celestial feature about a planet which had practically nothing to offer toanybody. presently the spaceboat was in the very thickof the fleet. his communicator spouted voices whose tones ranged from basso profundo tohigh tenor, and whose ideas of proper astrogation seemed to vary more widely still. "you there!" boomed a voice with deafeningvolume. "you're in our clear-space! sheer

off!" the volume of a signal in space varies asthe square of the distance. this voice was thunderous. it came apparently from a nearby,pot-bellied tripper ship of really ancient vintage. rows of ports in its sides had beenwelded over. it had rocket tubes whose size was indicative of the kind of long-obsoletefuel on which it once had operated. slenderer nozzles peered out of the original ones now.it had been adapted to modern propellants by simply welding modern rockets inside theold ones. it was only half a mile away. hoddan's spaceboat floated on. the relativeposition of the two ships changed slowly. another voice said indignantly:

"that's the same thing that missed us by lessthan a mile! you, there! stop acting like a squig! get on your own course!" a third voice; "what boat's that? i don't recognize it! ithought i knew all the freaks in this fleet, too!" a fourth voice said sharply: "that's not one of us! look at the design!that's not us!" other voices broke in. there was babbling.then a harsh voice roared: "quiet! i order it!" there was silence. theharsh voice said heavily, "relay the image

to me." there was a pause. the same voicesaid grimly: "it is not of our fleet. you, stranger! identify yourself! who are you andwhy do you slip secretly among us?" hoddan pushed the transmit button. "my name is bron hoddan," he said. "i cameup to find out why three ships, and then nine ships, went into orbit around darth. it wassomewhat alarming. our landing grid's disabled, anyhow, and it seemed wisest to look you overbefore we communicated and possibly told you something you might not believe. but you surelydon't expect to land all this fleet! actually, we can't land any." the harsh voice said as grimly as before:

"you come from the planet below us? darth?why is your ship so small? the smallest of ours is greater." "this is a lifeboat," said hoddan pleasantly."it's supposed to be carried on larger ships in case of emergency." "if you will come to our leading ship," saidthe voice, "we will answer all your questions. i will have a smoke flare set off to guideyou." hoddan said to himself: "no threats and no offers. i can guess whythere are no threats. but they should offer something!"

he waited. there was a sudden huge eruptionof vapor in space some two hundred miles away. perhaps an ounce of explosive had been introducedinto a rocket tube and fired. the smoke particles, naturally ionized, added their self-repulsionto the expansiveness of the explosive's gases. a cauliflowerlike shape of filmy whitenessappeared and grew larger and thinner. hoddan drove toward the spot with very lighttouches of rocket power. he swung the boat around and killed its relative velocity. theleading ship was a sort of gigantic, shapeless, utterly preposterous ark-like thing. hoddancould neither imagine a purpose for which it could have been used, nor a time when menwould have built anything like it. its huge sides seemed to be made exclusively of greatdoorways now tightly closed.

one of those doorways suddenly gaped wide.it would have admitted a good-sized modern ship. a nervous voice essayed to give hoddandirections for getting the spaceboat inside what was plainly an enormous hold now pumpedempty of air. he grunted and made the attempt. it was tricky. he sweated when he cut offhis power. but he felt fairly safe. rocket flames would burn down such a door, if necessary.he could work havoc if hostilities began. the great cargo door swung shut. the outside-pressureneedle swung sharply and stopped at thirty centimeters of mercury pressure. there wasa clanging. a smaller door evidently opened somewhere. lights came on—old-fashionedglow tubes. then figures appeared through a door leading to some other part of thisship.

hoddan nodded to himself. the costume wasodd. it was awkward. it was even primitive, but not in the fashion of the soiled but gaudilycolored garments of darth. these men wore unrelieved black, with gray shirts. therewas no touch of color about them. even the younger ones wore beards. and of all unnecessarythings, they wore flat-brimmed hats—in a spaceship! hoddan opened the boat door and said politely: "good morning. i'm bron hoddan. you were talkingto me just now." the oldest and most fiercely bearded of themen said harshly: "i am the leader here. we are the people ofcolin." he frowned when hoddan's expression

remained unchanged. "the people of colin!"he repeated more loudly. "the people whose forefathers settled that planet, and broughtit to be a world of peace and plenty—and then foolishly welcomed strangers to theirmidst!" "too bad," said hoddan. he knew what thesepeople were doing, he believed, but putting a name to where they'd come from told himnothing of what they wanted of darth. "we made it a fair world," said the beardedman fiercely. "but it was my great-grandfather who destroyed it. he believed that we shouldshare it. it was he who persuaded the synod to allow strangers to settle among us, believingthat they would become like us." hoddan nodded expectantly. these people werein some sort of trouble or they wouldn't have

come out of overdrive. but they'd talked aboutit until it had become an emotionalized obsession that couldn't be summarized. when they encountereda stranger, they had to picture their predicament passionately and at length. this bearded man looked at hoddan with burningeyes. when he went on, it was with gestures as if he were making a speech, but it wasa special sort of speech. the first sentence told what kind. "they clung to their sins!" said the beardedman bitterly. "they did not adopt our ways! our example went for naught! they broughtothers of their kind to colin. after a little they laughed at us. in a little more theyoutnumbered us! then they ruled that the laws

of our synod should not govern them. and theylured our young people to imitate them—frivolous, sinful, riotous folk that they were!" hoddan nodded again. there were elderly peopleon zan who talked like this. not his grandfather! if you listened long enough they'd come tosome point or other, but they had arranged their thoughts so solidly that any attemptto get quickly at their meaning would only produce confusion. "twenty years since," said the bearded manwith an angry gesture, "we made a bargain. we held a third of all the land of the planet,but our young men were falling away from the ways of their fathers. we made a bargain withthe newcomers we had cherished. we would trade

our lands, our cities, our farms, our highways,for ships to take us to a new world with food for the journey and machines for the tamingof the planet we would select. we sent of our number to find a world to which we couldmove. ten years back, they returned. they had found it. the planet thetis." again hoddan had no reaction. the name meantnothing. "we began to prepare," said the old man, hiseyes flashing. "five years since, we were ready. but we had to wait three more beforethe bargainers were ready to complete the trade. they had to buy and collect the ships.they had to design and build the machinery we would need. they had to collect the foodsupplies. two years ago we moved our animals

into the ships, and loaded our food and ourfurnishings, and took our places. we set out. for two years we have journeyed toward thetis." hoddan felt an instinctive respect for peoplewho would undertake to move themselves, the third of the population of a planet, overa distance that meant years of voyaging. they might have tastes in costume that he did notshare, and they might go in for elaborate oratory instead of matter-of-fact statements,but they had courage. "yes, sir," said hoddan. "i take it this bringsus up to the present." "no," said the old man, his eyes flashing."six months ago we considered that we might well begin to train the operators of the machineswe would use on thetis. we uncrated machines.

we found ourselves cheated!" hoddan found that he could make a fairly dispassionateguess of what advantage—say—nedda's father would take of people who would not check onhis good faith for two years and until they were two years' journey away. the businessmen on krim would have some sort of code determining how completely one could swindle a customer.don loris, now— "how badly were you cheated?" asked hoddan. "of our lives!" said the angry old man. "doyou know machinery?" "some kinds," admitted hoddan. "come," said the leader of the fleet.

with a sort of dignity that was theatricalonly because he was aware of it, the leader of the people of colin showed the way. hoddanhad been admitted with his spaceboat into one gigantic cargo hold. he was now escortedto the next. it was packed tightly with cases of machinery. one huge crate had been openedand its contents fully disclosed. others had been hacked at enough to show their contents. the uncrated machine was a jungle plow. itwas a powerful piece of equipment which would attack jungle on a thirty-foot front, knockdown all vegetation up to trees of four-foot diameter, shred it, loosen and sift the soilto a three-foot depth, and leave behind it smoothed, broken, pulverized dirt mixed withground-up vegetation ready to break down into

humus. such a machine would clear tens ofacres in a day and night, turning jungle into farmland ready for terrestrial crops. "we ran this for five minutes," said the beardedman fiercely as hoddan nodded approval. he lifted a motor hood. the motors were burned out. worthless insulation.gears were splintered and smashed. low-grade metal castings. assembly bolts had parted.tractor treads were bent and cracked. it was not a machine except in shape. it was a mock-upin worthless materials which probably cost its maker the twentieth part of what an honestjungle plow would cost to build. hoddan felt the anger any man feels when hesees betrayal of that honor a competent machine

represents. "it's not all like this!" he said incredulously. "some is worse," said the old man, with dignity."there are crates which are marked to contain turbines. their contents are ancient, worn-outbrick-making machines. there are crates marked to contain generators. they are filled withcorroded irrigation pipe and broken castings. we have shiploads of crush-baled, rusted sheet-metaltrimmings! we have been cheated of our lives!" hoddan found himself sick with honest fury.the population of one-third of a planet, packed into spaceships for two years and more, wouldbe appropriate subjects for sympathy at the best of times. but it was only accident thathad kept these people from landing on thetis

by rocket—since none of their ships wouldbe expected ever to rise again—and from having their men go out and joyfully hackat an alien jungle to make room for their machines to land—and then find out they'dbrought scrap metal for some thousands of light-years to no purpose. they'd have starved outright. in fact, theywere in not much better case right now. because there was nowhere else that they could go!there was no new colony which could absorb so many people, with only their bare handsfor equipment to live by. there was no civilized, settled world which could admit so many pauperswithout starving its own population. there was nowhere for these people to go!

hoddan's anger took on the feeling of guilt.he could do nothing, and something had to be done. "why ... why did you come to darth?" he asked."what can you gain by orbiting here? you can't expect—" the old man faced him. "we are beggars," he said with bitter dignity."we stopped here to ask for charity—for the old and worn-out machines the people ofdarth can spare us. we will be grateful for even a single rusty plow. because we haveto go on. we can do nothing else. we will land on thetis. and one plow can mean thata few of us will live who otherwise would

die with ... with the most of us." hoddan ran his hands through his hair. thiswas not his trouble, but he could not thrust it from him. "but again—why darth?" he asked helplessly."why not stop at a world with riches to spare? darth's a poor place—" "because it is the poor who are generous,"said the bearded man evenly. "the rich might give us what they could spare. but simple,not-rich people, close to the soil, will give us what they need themselves. they will sharewhat they have, and accept a share of our need."

hoddan paced up and down the ancient flooringof this compartment in an ancient ship. presently he said jerkily: "with all the good will in the world.... darthis poverty-stricken. it has no industries. it has no technology. it has not even roads!it is a planet of little villages and tiny towns. a ship from elsewhere stops here onlyonce a month. ground communications are almost nonexistent. to spread the word of your needover darth would require months. but to collect what might be given, without roads or evenwheeled vehicles— no. it's impossible! and i have the only space vessel on the planet,and it's not fit for a journey between suns." the bearded man waited with a sort of implacabledespair.

"but," said hoddan grimly, "i have an idea.i ... ah ... have contacts on walden. the government of walden does not regard charitywith favor. the need for charity seems a ... ah ... a criticism of the waldenian standardof living." the bearded man said coldly: "i can understand that. the hearts of therich are hardened. the existence of the poor is a reproach to them." but hoddan began suddenly to see real possibilities.this was not a direct move toward the realization of his personal ambitions. but on the otherhand, it wasn't a movement away from them. hoddan suddenly remembered an oration he'dheard his grandfather give many, many times

in the past. "straight thinkin'," the old man had saidobstinately, "is a delusion. you think things out clear and simple, and you can see yourselfruined and your family starving any day! but real things ain't simple! they ain't clear!any time you try to figure things out so they're simple and straightforward, you're goin' againstnature and you're going to get 'em mixed up! so when something happens and you're in astraightforward, hopeless fix—why, you go along with nature! make it as complicatedas you can, and the people who want you in trouble will get hopeless confused and youcan get out!" hoddan adverted to his grandfather's wisdom—notmaking it the reason for doing what he could,

but accepting that it not impossibly mightapply. he saw one possibility right away. it looked fairly good. after a minute's examinationit looked better. it was astonishing how plausible— "hm-m-m," he said. "i have planned work ofmy own, as you may have guessed. i am here because of ... ah ... people on walden. ifi could make a quick trip to walden my ... hm-m-m ... present position might let me help you.i cannot promise very much, but if i can borrow even the smallest of your ships for the journeymy spaceboat can't make ... why.... i may be able to do something. much more than canbe done on darth!" the bearded man looked at his companions. "he seems frank," he said forbiddingly, "andwe can lose nothing. we have stopped our journey

and are in orbit. we can wait. but ... ourpeople should not go to walden. fleshpots—" "i can find a crew," said hoddan cheerfully.inwardly he was tremendously relieved. "if you say the word, i'll go down to ground andcome back with them. er ... i'll want a very small ship!" "it will be," said the old man. "we thankyou—" "get it inboard, here," suggested hoddan,"so i can come inside as before, transfer my crew without spacesuits, and leave my boatin your care until i come back." "it shall be done," said the old man firmly.he added gravely: "you must have had an excellent upbringing, young man, to be willing to liveamong the poverty-stricken people you describe,

and to be willing to go so far to help strangerslike ourselves." "eh?" then hoddan said enigmatically, "whatlessons i shall apply to your affairs, i learned at the knee of my beloved grandfather." of course, his grandfather was head of themost notorious gang of pirates on the disreputable planet zan, but hoddan found himself increasinglyrespecting the old gentleman as he gained experience of various worlds. he went briskly back to his spaceboat. onthe way he made verbal arrangements for the enterprise he'd envisioned so swiftly. itwas remarkable how two sets of troubles could provide suggestions for their joint alleviation.he actually saw possible achievement before

him. even in electronics! by the time the cargo space was again pumpedempty and the great door opened to the vastness of space, hoddan had a very broad view ofthings. he'd said that same day to fani that a practical man can always make what he wantsto do look like a sacrifice of his personal inclinations to others' welfare. he beganto suspect, now, that the welfare of others can often coincide with one's own. he needed some rather extensive changes inthe relationship of the cosmos to himself. walden was prepared to pay bribes for him.don loris felt it necessary to have him confined somewhere. there were a number of darthiangentlemen who would assuredly like to slaughter

him if he wasn't kept out of their reach insome cozy dungeon. but up to now there had been not even a practical way to leave darth,to act upon walden, or even to change his status in the eyes of darthians. he backed out of the big ship and consultedthe charts of the lifeboat. they had been consulted before, of course, to locate thelanding grid which did not answer calls. he found its position. he began to compare thechart with what he saw from out here in orbit above darth. he identified a small ocean,with darth's highest mountain chain just beyond its eastern limit. he identified a river-system,emptying into that sea. and here he began to get rid of his excess velocity, becausethe landing grid was not very far distant—some

fifteen hundred or two thousand miles. to a scientific pilot, his maneuvering fromthat time on would have been a complex task. the advantage of computation over astrogationby ear, however, is largely a matter of saving fuel. a perfectly computed course for landingwill get down to ground with the use of the least number of centigrams of fuel possible.but fuel-efficient maneuvers are rarely time-efficient ones. hoddan hadn't the time or the data for computation.he swung the spaceboat end for end, very judgmatically used rocket power to slow himself to a suitableeast-west velocity, and at the last and proper instant applied full-power for decelerationand went down practically like a stone. one

cannot really learn this. it has to be absorbedthrough the pores of one's skin. that was the way hoddan had absorbed it, on zan. within minutes, then, the stronghold of donloris was startled by a roaring mutter in the sky high overhead. helmeted sentries onthe battlements stared upward. the mutter rose to a howl, and the howl to the volumeof thunder, and the thunder to a very great noise which made loose pebbles dance and quiver. then there was a speck of white cloudinessin the late afternoon sky. it grew swiftly in size, and a winking blue-white light appearedin its center. that light grew brighter—and the noise managed somehow to increase—andpresently the ruddy sunlight was diluted by

light from the rockets with considerably moreblue in it. secondary, pallid shadows appeared. then, abruptly, the rockets cut off, and somethingdark plunged downward, and the rockets flamed again, and a vast mass of steam arose fromscorched ground—and the spaceboat lay in a circle of wildly smoking, carbonized darthiansoil. the return of tranquility after so much of tumult was startling. absolutely nothing happened. hoddan unstrappedhimself from the pilot's seat, examined his surroundings thoughtfully, and turned offthe vision apparatus. he went back and examined the feeding arrangements of the boat. he'dhad nothing to eat since breakfast in this same time-zone. the food in store was extremelyeasy to prepare and not especially appetizing.

he ate with great deliberation, continuingto make plans which linked the necessities of the emigrants from colin to his relationshipto the government of walden, the brief visit he'd made to krim, the ship the emigrantswould lend him and his unpopularity with don loris on darth. he also thought very respectfullyabout his grandfather's opinions on many subjects, including space-piracy. hoddan found himselfmuch more in agreement with his grandfather than he'd believed possible. outside the boat, birds which had dived toground and cowered there during the boat's descent now flew about again, their terrorforgotten. horses which had galloped wildly in their pastures, or kicked in panic in thecastle stalls, returned to their oats and

hay. and there were human reactions. don lorishad been in an excessively fretful state of mind since the conclusion of his deal withthe pair from walden. hoddan had estimated that he ought to get a half-million creditsfor hoddan delivered to derec and the waldenian police. he'd been unable to get the policeofficial—derec merely sat miserably by and said nothing—to promise more than half somuch. but he'd closed the deal and sent for hoddan—and hoddan was gone. now the landing of this spaceboat roused alively uneasiness in don loris. it might be new bargainers for hoddan. it might be anything.hoddan had said he had a secret. this might

be it. don loris vexedly tried to contrivesome useful skulduggery without the information to base it on. fani looked at the spaceboat with bright eyes.thal was back at the castle. he'd told her of hoddan riding up to the spaceboat nearanother chieftain's castle, entering it, and that then it had taken to the skies in anaura of flames and smoke and thunder. fani hoped that he might have returned here init. but she worried while she waited for him to do something. hoddan did nothing. the spaceboat gave nosign of life. the sun set, and the sky twinkled with dartinglights which flew toward the west and vanished.

twilight followed, and more lights flashedacross the heavens as if pursuing the sun. fani had learned to associate three and thennine such lights with spacecraft, but she could not dream of a fleet of hundreds. shedismissed the lights from her mind, being much more concerned with hoddan. he wouldbe in as bad a fix as ever if he came out of the boat. twilight remained, a fairy half-light in whichall things looked much more charming than they really were. and don loris, reduced topeevish sputtering by pure mystery, summoned thal to him. it should be remembered thatdon loris knew nothing of the disappearance of the spaceboat from his neighbor's land.he knew nothing of thal's journey with hoddan.

but he did remember that hoddan had seemedunworried at breakfast and explained his calm by saying that he had a secret. the feudalchieftain worried lest this spaceboat be it. "thal," said don loris peevishly, sittingbeside the great fireplace in the enormous, draughty hall, "you know this bron hoddanbetter than anybody else." thal breathed heavily. he turned pale. "where is he?" demanded don loris. "i don't know," said thal. it was true. sofar as he was concerned, hoddan had vanished into the sky. "what does he plan to do?" demanded don loris.

"i don't know," said thal helplessly. "where does that ... that thing outside thecastle come from?" "i don't know," said thal. don loris drummed on the arm of his intricatelycarved chair. "i don't like people who don't know things!"he said fretfully. "there must be somebody in that—thing. why don't they show themselves?what are they here for? why did they come down—especially here? because of bron hoddan?" "i don't know," said thal humbly. "then go find out!" snapped don loris. "takea reasonable guard with you. the thing must

have a door. knock on it and ask who's insideand why they came here. tell them i sent you to ask." thal saluted. with his teeth tending to chatter,he gathered a half-dozen of his fellows and went tramping out the castle gate. some ofthe half dozen had been involved in the rescue of the lady fani from ghek. they were stillin a happy mood because of the plunder they'd brought back. it was much more than a mereretainer could usually hope for in a year. "what's this all about, thal?" demanded oneof them as thal arranged them in two lines to make a proper military appearance, spearsdressed upright and garrison-shields on their left arms.

"frrrrd harch!" barked thal, and they swunginto motion. "two, three, four, hup, two, three, four. hup, two, three—" the cadencewas established. thal said gloomily, "don loris said to findout who landed that thing out yonder. and he keeps asking me about bron hoddan, too." he strode in step with the others. the sevenmen made an impressively soldierly group, tramping away from the castle wall. "what happened to him?" asked a rear-fileman. he marched on, eyes front, chest out, spear-shaft swinging splendidly in time withhis marching. "that lad has a nose for loot! don't take it himself, though. if he set upin business as a chieftain, now—"

"hup, two, three, four," muttered thal. "hup,two, three—" "don loris' a hard chieftain," growled theright-hand man in the second file. "plenty of grub and beer, but no fighting and no loot.i didn't get to go with you characters the other day, but what you brought back—" "wasn't half of what was there," mourned afront-file man. "wasn't half! those pistols he issued got shot out and we had to get outtathere fast!... hm-m-m.... here's this thing, thal. what do we do with it?" "hrrrmp, halt!" barked thal. he stared atthe motionless, seemingly lifeless, shapeless spaceboat. he'd seen one like it earlier today.that one spouted fire and went up out of sight.

he was wary of this one. he grumbled: "thosepipes in the back of it—steer clear of 'em. they spit fire. no door on this side. donloris said knock on the door. we go around the front. frrrrd harch! two, three, four,hup, two, three, four. left turn here and mind those rocks. don loris'd give us hellif somebody fell down. left turn again, hup, two, three, four—" the seven men tramped splendidly around thefront of the lifeboat. on the far side, its bulk hid even don loris' castle from view.the six spearmen, with thal, came to a second halt. "here goes," rumbled thal. "i tell you, boys,if she starts to spit fire, you get the hell

away!" he marched up to the spaceboat's port. heknocked on it. there was no response. he knocked again. hoddan opened the door. he nodded cheerfullyto thal. "'afternoon, thal! glad to see you. i've beenhoping you'd come over this way. who's with you?" he peered through the semidarkness."some of the boys, eh? come in!" he beckoned and said casually: "lean your spears againstthe hull, there." thal hesitated and was lost. the others obeyed.there were clatterings as the steel spearheads came to rest against the metal hull. six ofdon loris' retainers followed thal admiringly

into the spaceboat's interior, to gaze atit and that bron hoddan who so recently had given three of them and nearly half a scoreof their fellows the chance to loot a nearby castle. "sit down!" said hoddan cordially. "if youwant to feel what a spaceboat's really like, clasp the seat belts around you. you'll feelexactly like you're about to make a journey out of atmosphere. that's it. lean back. younotice there are no viewports in the hull? that's because we use these visionscreensto see around with." he flicked on the screens. thal and his companionswere charmed to see the landscape outside portrayed on screens. hoddan shifted the sensitivity-pointtoward infra red, and details came out that

would have been invisible to the naked eye. "with the boatport closed," said hoddan, "likethis—" the port clanged shut and grumbled for half a second as the locking-dogs wenthome. "we're all set for take-off. i need only get into the pilot's seat"—he did so,"and throw on the fuel pump—" a tiny humming sounded. "and we move when i advance thisthrottle!" he pressed the firing-stud. there was a soul-shakingroar. there was a terrific pressure. the seven men from don loris' stronghold were pressedback in their seats with an overwhelming, irresistible pressure which held them absolutelyhelpless. their mouths dropped open. appalled protests tried to come out, but were pushedback by the seemingly ever-increasing acceleration.

the screens, showing the outside, displayeda great and confused tumult of smoke and fumes and dust to rearward. they showed only starsahead. those stars grew brighter and brighter, as the roar of the rockets diminished to amerely deafening sound. suddenly the disk of the local sun appeared, rising above thehorizon to the west. the spaceboat, naturally, overtook it as it rose into an orbit headedeast to west instead of the other way about. presently hoddan turned off the fuel pump.he turned to look thoughtfully at the seven men. they were very pale. they sat unanimouslyvery still, because they could see in the vision plates that a strange, mottled, again-sunlitsurface flowed past them with an appalling velocity. they were very much afraid thatthey knew what it was. they did. it was the

surface of the planet darth, well below them. "i'm glad you boys came along," said hoddan."we'll catch up with the fleet in a moment or two. the pirate fleet, you know! i'm verypleased with you. not many groundlings would volunteer for space-piracy, not even withthe loot there is in it!" thal choked slightly, but no one else madea sound. no one even protested. protests would have been no use. there were looks of anguish,but nothing else, because hoddan was the only one in the spaceboat who had the least ideaof how to get it down again. his passengers had to go along for the ride he'd taken themfor, no matter where it led. numbly, they waited for what would befall.viii

hoddan did not worry about his followers—captives—notingthe obsolescence of the space fleet into which they presently drifted. ancient hulks andimpractical oddities did not seem antique or freakish to them. they had no standardsin such matters. the planet darth seemed slightly off to one side in space, at some times, andat others it seemed underfoot while at others it looked directly overhead. at all timesit moved visibly, while the spaceboat and the ships in orbit seemed merely to floatin nearly fixed positions. when the dark part of darth appeared to roll toward the spaceboatagain all the bright specks which were ships about them winked out of sight and there wereonly faraway stars and a vast blackness off to one side like nothingness made visible.

the spearmen were wholly subdued when therewas light once more and eccentric shapes around them. there was a ring-ship—the hull likea metal wheel with a huge tire, with pipe passages from the tire part to the hub wherethe control room was located. it seemed unbelievable that such a relic could still exist, datingas it did from the period before gravity-fields could be put into spacecraft. it would haveprovided a crazy sort of gravity by spinning as it limped from one place to another. whoeverhad collected this fleet for the emigrants from colin must have required only one thing—thatthere be a hull. given something that would hold air, a lawlor drive, a gravity-unit,and air apparatus would turn it into a ship that could go into overdrive and hence crossthe galaxy at need. those who bargained with

the emigrants had been content to furnishnothing more than that. but this could not be appreciated by hoddan'sinvoluntary crew. the spaceboat drew up alongside the gigantic hulk which was the leader's.the seven darthians were still numbed by their kidnaping and the situation in which theyfound themselves. they looked with dull eyes at the mountainous object they approached.it had actually been designed as a fighter-carrier of space, intended to carry smaller craftto fight nonexistent warships under conditions which never came about. it must have beensold for scrap a couple of hundred years since, and patched up for this emigration. hoddan waited for the huge door to open. itdid. he headed into the opening, noticing

as he did so that an object two or three timesthe size of the spaceboat was already there. it cut down the room for maneuvering, buta thing once done is easier thereafter. hoddan got the boat inside, and there was a verysmall scraping and the great door closed before the boat could drift out again. hoddan turned to his companions—followers—victims,once the spaceboat was still. "this," he said in a manner which could onlybe described as one of smiling ferocity, "is a pirate ship, belonging to the pirate fleetwe passed through on the way here. it's manned by characters so murderous that their leadersdon't dare land anywhere away from their home star-cluster, or all the galaxy would combineagainst them, to exterminate them or be exterminated.

you've joined that fleet. you're going toget out of this boat and march over that ship yonder. then you're going to be space piratesunder me." they quivered, but did not protest. "i'll try you for one voyage," he told them."there will be plunder. there will be pirate revels. if you serve faithfully and fightwell, i'll return you to don loris' stronghold with your loot after the one voyage. if youdon't—" he grinned mirthlessly at them—"out the air lock with you, to float forever betweenthe stars. understand?" the last was pure savagery. they cringed.the outside-pressure meter went up to normal. hoddan turned off the visionscreens, so endingany view of the interior of the hold. he opened

the port and went out. sitting in somethinglike continued paralysis in their seats, the seven spearmen of darth heard his voice inconversation outside the boat. they could catch no words, but hoddan's tone was strictlybusinesslike. he came back. "all right," he said shortly. "thal, march'em over." thal gulped. he loosened his seat belt. theenlistment of the seven in the pirate fleet was tacitly acknowledged. they were unarmedsave for the conventional large knives at their belts. "frrrd, harch!" rasped thal with a lump inhis throat. "two, three, four. hup two, three, four. hup—"

seven men marched dismally out of the spaceboatand down to the floor of the huge hold. eyes front, chests out, throats dry, they marchedto the larger but still small vessel that shared this hold compartment. they marchedinto that ship. thal barked, "halt!" and they stopped. they waited. hoddan came in very matter-of-factly onlymoments later. he closed the entrance port, so sealing the ship. he nodded approvingly. "you can break ranks now," he said. "there'sfood and such stuff around. the ship's yours. but don't turn knobs or push buttons untilyou've asked me what for!" he went forward, and a door closed behindhim.

he looked at the control board, and couldhave done with a little information himself. when the ship was built, generations ago,there'd been controls installed which would be quite useless now. when the present workinginstruments were installed, it had been done so hastily that the wires and relays behindthem were not concealed, and it was these that gave him the clues to understand them. the space ark's door opened. hoddan backedhis ship out. its rockets had surprising power. he reflected that the lawlor drive wouldn'thave been designed for this present ship, either. there'd probably been a quantity orderfor so many lawlor drives, and they'd been installed on whatever needed a modern drive-system,which was every ship in the fleet. but since

this was one of the smallest craft in thelot, with its low mass it should be fast. "we'll see," he said to nobody in particular. out in emptiness, but naturally sharing theorbit of the ship from which it had just come, hoddan tried it out tentatively. he got thefeel of it. then as a matter of simple, rule-of-thumb astrogation, he got from a low orbit to afive-diameter height where the lawlor drive would take hold by mere touches of rocketpower. it was simply a matter of stretching the orbit to extreme eccentricity as all theships went round the planet. after the fourth go round he was fully five diameters out ataphelion. he touched the lawlor drive button and everybody had that very peculiar disturbanceof all their senses which accompanies going

into overdrive. the small craft sped throughemptiness at a high multiple of the speed of light. hoddan's knowledge of astrogation was strictlypractical. he went over his ship. from a look at it outside he'd guessed that it once hadbeen a yacht. various touches inside verified that idea. there were two staterooms. allthe hull-space was for living and supplies. none was for cargo. he nodded. there was afaint mustiness about it. but there'd been a time when it was some rich man's pride. he went back to the control room to make anestimate. from the pilot's seat one could see a speck of brightness directly ahead.infinitesimal dots of brightness appeared,

grew swiftly brighter and then darted outward.as they darted they disappeared because their motion became too swift to follow. there were,of course, methods of measuring this phenomenon so that one could get an accurate measureof one's speed in overdrive. hoddan had no instrument for the purpose. but he had thefeel of things. this was a very fast ship indeed, at full lawlor thrust. presently he went out to the central cabin.his followers had found provisions. there were novelties—hydroponic fruit, for instance—andthey'd gloomily stuffed themselves. they were almost resigned, now. memory of the loot he'dled other men to at ghek's castle inclined them to be hopeful. but they looked uneasywhen he stopped where they were gathered.

"well?" he said sharply. thal swallowed. "we have been companions, bron hoddan," hesaid unhappily. "we fought together in great battles, two against fifty, and we plunderedthe slain." "true enough," agreed hoddan. if thal wantedto edit his memories of the fighting at the spaceport, that was all right with him. "nowwe're headed for something much better." "but what?" asked thal miserably. "here weare high above our native world—" "oh, no!" said hoddan. "you couldn't evenpick out its sun, from where we are now!" thal gulped.

"i ... do not understand what you want withus," he protested. "we are not experienced in space! we are simple men—" "you're pirates now," hoddan told him witha sort of genial bloodthirstiness. "you'll do what i tell you until we fight. then you'llfight well or die. that's all you need to know!" he left them. when men are to be led it israrely wise to discuss policy or tactics with them. most men work best when they know onlywhat is expected of them. then they can't get confused and they do not get ideas ofhow to do things better. hoddan inspected the yacht more carefully.there were still traces of decorative features

which had nothing to do with space-worthiness.but the mere antiquity of the ship made hoddan hunt more carefully. he found a small compartmentpacked solidly with supplies. a supply-cabinet did not belong where it was. he hauled outstuff to make sure. it was ... it had been ... a machine shop in miniature. in the earlydays, before spacephones were long-range devices, a yacht or a ship that went beyond orbitaldistance was strictly on its own. if there were a breakdown, it was strictly private.it had to repair itself or else. so all early spacecraft carried amazingly complete equipmentfor repairs. only liners are equipped that way in recent generations, and it is almostunheard-of for their tool shops to be used. but there was the remnant of a shop on theyacht that hoddan had in hand for his errand

to walden. he'd told the emigrant leadersthat he went to ask for charity. he'd just assured his followers that their journey wasfor piracy. now— he began to empty the cubbyhole of all theitems that had been packed into it for storage. it had been very ingenious, this miniaturerepair shop. the lathe was built in with strength-members of the walls as part of its structure. thedrill press was recessed. the welding apparatus had its coils and condensers under the floor.the briefest of examinations showed the condensers to be in bad shape, and the coils might behopeless. but there was good material used in the old days. hoddan began to have quiteunreasonable hopes. he went back to the control room to meditate.

he'd had a reasonably sound plan of actionfor the pirating of a space-liner, even though he had no weapons mounted on the ship noranything more deadly than stun-pistols for his reluctant crew. but he considered it likelythat he could make the same sort of landing with this yacht that he'd already done withthe spaceboat. which should be enough. if he waited off walden until a liner wentdown to the planet's great spaceport, he could try it. he would go into a close orbit aroundwalden which would bring him, very low, over the landing grid within an hour or so of theliner's landing. he'd turn the yacht end for end and apply full rocket power for deceleration.the yacht would drop like a stone into the landing grid. everything would happen tooquickly for the grid crew to think of clapping

a force field on it, or for them to manageit if they tried. he'd be aground before they realized it. the rest was simply fast action. hoddan andseven darthians, stun-pistols humming, would tumble out of the yacht and dash for the controlroom of the grid. hoddan would smash the controls. then they'd rush the landed liner, seize it,shoot down anybody who tried to oppose them, and seal up the ship. and then they'd take off. on the liner's rockets,which were carried for emergency landing only, but could be used for a single take-off. afterone such use they'd be exhausted. and with the grid's controls smashed, nobody couldeven try to stop them.

it wasn't a bad idea. he had a good deal ofconfidence in it. it was the reason for his darthian crew. nobody'd expect such a thingto be tried, so it almost certainly could be done. but it did have the drawback thatthe yacht would have to be left behind, a dead loss, when the liner was seized. hoddan thought it over soberly. long beforehe reached walden, of course, he could have his own crew so terrified that they'd fightlike fiends for fear of what he might do to them if they didn't. but if he could keepthe space-yacht also— he nodded gravely. he liked the new possibility.if it didn't work, there was the first plan in reserve. in any case he'd get a modernspace-liner and a suitable cargo to present

to the emigrants of colin. and afterward— there were certain electronic circuits whichwere akin. the lawlor drive unit formed a force field, a stress in space, into whicha nearby ship necessarily moved. the faster-than-light angle came from the fact that it worked likea donkey trotting after a carrot held in front of him by a stick. the ship moving into thestressed area moved the stress. the force fields of a landing grid were similar. a tuningprinciple was involved, but basically a landing grid clamped an area of stress around a spaceship,and the ship couldn't move out of it. when the landing grid moved the stressed area upor down—why—that was it. all this was known to everybody. but a thirdtrick had been evolved on zan. it was based

on the fact that ball lightning could be generatedby a circuit fundamentally akin to the other two. ball lightning was an area of space sostressed that its energy-content could leak out only very slowly, unless it made contactwith a conductor, when all bets were off. it blew. and the zan pirates used ball lightningto force the surrender of their victims. hoddan began to draw diagrams. the lawlordrive-unit had been installed long after the yacht was built. it would be modern, withno nonsense about it. with such-and-such of its electronic components cut out, and such-and-suchother ones cut in, it would become a perfectly practical ball lightning generator, capableof placing bolts wherever one wanted them. this was standard zan practice. hoddan's grandfatherhad used it for years. it had the advantage

that it could be used inside a gravity field,where a lawlor drive could not. it had the other advantage that commercial spacecraftcould not mount such gadgets for defense, because the insurance companies objected tomeddling with lawlor drive installations. hoddan set to work with the remnants of atool shop on the ancient yacht and some antique coils and condensers and such. he became filledwith zest. he almost forgot that he was the skipper of an elderly craft which should havebeen scrapped before he was born. but even he grew hungry, and he realized thatnobody offered him food. he went indignantly into the yacht's central saloon and foundhis seven crew-members snoring stertorously, sprawled in stray places here and there.

he woke them with great sternness. he setthem furiously to work on that housekeeping—including meals—which can be neglected in a feudalcastle because strong outside winds blow smells away and dry up smelly objects, but whichmust be practiced in a spaceship. he went back to work. suddenly he stoppedand meditated afresh, and ceased his actual labor to draw a diagram which he regardedwith great affection. he returned to his adaptation of the lawlor drive to the production of balllightning. it was possible to wind coils. a certain percentageof the old condensers held a charge. he tapped the drive-unit for brazing current, and thedrill-press became a die-stamping device for small parts. he built up the elements of avacuum tube such as is normally found only

in a landing grid control room. he set upa vacuum-valve arrangement in the base of a large glass jar. he put that jar in theboat's air lock, bled the air to emptiness, and flashed the tube's quaint elements. hebrought it back and went out of overdrive while he hooked the entire new assembly intothe drive-circuit, with cut-outs and switches to be operated from the yacht's instrumentboard. finished, he examined the stars. the nearbysuns were totally strange in their arrangement. but the coalsack area was a space-mark goodfor half a sector of the galaxy. there was a condensation in the nearer rim for a secondbearing. and a certain calcium cloud with a star-cluster behind it was as good as ahighway sign for locating one's self.

he lined up the yacht again and went intooverdrive once more. two days later he came out, again surveyed the cosmos, again wentinto overdrive, again came out, once more made a hop in faster-than-light travel—andhe was in the solar system of which walden was the ornament and pride. he used the telescope and contemplated waldenon its screen. the space yacht moved briskly toward it. his seven darthian crewmen, awareof coming action, dolefully sharpened their two-foot knives. they did not know what elseto do, but they were far from happy. hoddan shared their depression. such gloomyanticipations before stirring events are proof that a man is not a fool. hoddan's grandfatherhad been known to observe that when a man

can imagine all kinds of troubles and risksand disasters ahead of him, he is usually right. hoddan shared that view. but it wouldnot do to back out now. he examined walden painstakingly while theyacht sped on. he saw an ocean come out of the twilight zone of dawn. by the charts,the capital city and the spaceport should be on that ocean's western shore. after asuitable and very long interval, the site of the capital city came around the edge ofthe planet. from a bare hundred thousand miles, hoddanstepped up magnification to its limit and looked again. then walden more than filledthe telescope's field. he could see only a very small fraction of the planet's surface.he had to hunt before he found the capital

city again. then it was very clear. he sawthe curving lines of its highways and the criss-cross pattern of its streets. buildingsas such, however, did not show. but he made out the spaceport and the shadow of the landinggrid, and in the very center of that grid there was something silvery which cast a shadowof its own. a ship. a liner. there was a tap on the control-room door.thal. "anything happening?" he asked uneasily. "i just sighted the ship we're going to take,"said hoddan. thal looked unhappy. he withdrew. hoddan plottedout the extremely roundabout course he must take to end up with the liner and the yachttraveling in the same direction and the same

speed, so capture would be possible. he put the yacht on the line required. hethrew on full power. actually, he headed partly away from his intended victim. the littleyacht plunged forward. nothing seemed to happen. time passed. hoddan had nothing to do butworry. he worried. thal tapped on the door again. "about time to get ready to fight?" he askeddolefully. "not yet," said hoddan. "i'm running awayfrom our victim, now." another half hour. the course changed. theyacht was around behind walden. the whole planet lay between it and its intended prey.the course of the small ship curved, now.

it would pass almost close enough to clipthe topmost tips of walden's atmosphere. there was nothing for hoddan to do but think morbidthoughts. he thought them. the lawlor drive began to burble. he cut itoff. he sat gloomily in the control room, occasionally glancing at the nearing expanseof rushing mottled surface presented by the now-nearby planet. its attraction bent thepath of the yacht. it was now a parabolic curve. presently the surface diminished a little.the yacht was increasing its distance from it. hoddan used the telescope. he searchedthe space ahead with full-width field. he found the liner. it rose steadily. the gridstill thrust it upward with an even, continuous

acceleration. it had to be not less than fortythousand miles out before it could take to overdrive. but at that distance it would havean outward velocity which would take it on out indefinitely. at ten thousand miles, certainly,the grid-fields would let go. they did. hoddan could tell because the linerhad been pointed base down toward the planet when the force fields picked it up. now itwabbled slightly. it was free. it was no longer held solidly. from now on it floated up onmomentum. hoddan nibbled at his fingernails. there wasnothing to be done for forty minutes more. presently there was nothing to be done forthirty. for twenty. ten. five. three. two— the liner was barely twenty miles away whenhoddan fired his rockets. they made a colossal

cloud of vapor in emptiness. the yacht stirredfaintly, shifted deftly, lost just a suitable amount of velocity—which now was nearlystraight up from the planet—and moved with precision and directness toward the liner.hoddan stirred his controls and swung the whole small ship. here, obviously, he couldnot use the space-drive for its proper purpose. but a switch cut out certain elements of thelawlor unit and cut in those others which made the modified drive-unit into a ball lightningprojector. a flaming speck of pure incandescence spedfrom the yacht through emptiness. it would miss— no. hoddan swerved it. it struck theliner's hull. it would momentarily paralyze every bit of electric equipment in the ship.it would definitely not go unnoticed.

"calling liner," said hoddan painfully intoa microphone. "calling liner! we are pirates, attacking your ship. you have ten secondsto get into your lifeboats or we will hull he settled back, again nibbling at his fingernails.he was acutely disturbed. at the end of ten seconds the distance between the two shipswas perceptibly less. he flung a second ball lightning bolt acrossthe diminished space. he sent it whirling round and round the liner in a tight spiral.he ended by having it touch the liner's bow. liquid light ran over the entire hull. "your ten seconds are up," he said worriedly."if you don't get out—" but then he relaxed. a boat-blister on theliner opened. the boat did not release itself.

it could not possibly take on its complementof passengers and crew in so short a time. the opening of the blister was a sign of surrender. the two first ball lightning bolts were miniatures.hoddan now projected a full-sized ball. it glittered viciously in emptiness, the plasma-gasnecessary for its existence furnishing a medium for radiation. it sped toward the liner andhung off its side, menacingly. the yacht from darth moved steadily closer. five miles. two. "all out," said hoddan regretfully. "we can'twait any longer!" a boat darted away from the liner. a second.a third and fourth and fifth. the last boat lingered desperately. the yacht was less thana mile away when it broke free and plunged

frantically toward the planet it had lefta little while before. the other boats were already streaking downward, trails of rocket-fumesexpanding behind them. the crew of the landing grid would pick them up for safe and gentlelanding. hoddan sighed in relief. he played delicatelyupon the yacht's rocket-controls. he carefully maneuvered the very last of the noveltieshe had built into an originally simple lawlor drive-unit. the two ships came together witha distinct clanking sound. it seemed horribly loud. thal jerked open the door, ashen-white. "w-we hit something! wh-when do we fight?"

hoddan said ruefully: "i forgot. the fighting's over. but bringyour stun-pistols. nobody'd stay behind, but somebody might have gotten left." he rose, to take over the captured ship.ix normally, at overdrive cruising speed, itwould be a week's journey from walden to the planet krim. hoddan made it in five days.there was reason. he wanted to beat the news of his piracy to krim. he could endure suspicion,and he wouldn't mind doubt, but he did not want certainty of his nefarious behavior tointerfere with the purposes of his call. the space yacht, sealed tightly, floated inan orbit far out in emptiness. the big ship

went down alone by landing grid. it glitteredbrightly as it descended. when it touched ground and the grid's force fields cut off,it looked very modern and very crisp and strictly businesslike. actually, the capture of thisparticular liner was a bit of luck, for hoddan. it was not one of the giant inter-clusterships which make runs of thousands of light-years and deign to stop only at very major planets.it was a medium ship of five thousand tons burden, designed for service in the horseheadnebula region. it was brand-new and on the way from its builders to its owners when hoddaninterfered. naturally, though, it carried cargo on its maiden voyage. hoddan spoke curtly to the control room ofthe grid.

"i'm non-sked," he explained. "new ship. igot a freak charter party over on walden and i have to get rid of my cargo. how about shiftingme to a delay space until i can talk to some brokers?" the force fields came on again and the linermoved very delicately to a position at the side of the grid's central space. there itwould be out of the way. hoddan dressed himself carefully in garmentsfound in the liner's skipper's cabin. he found thal wearing an apron and an embittered expression.he ceased to wield a mop as hoddan halted before him. "i'm going ashore," said hoddan crisply. "you'rein charge until i get back."

"in charge of what?" demanded thal bitterly."of a bunch of male housemaids! i run a mop! and me a darthian gentleman! i thought i wasbeing a pirate! what do i do? i scrub floors! i wash paint! i stencil cases in cargo holds!i paint over names and put others in their places! me, a darthian gentleman!" "no," said hoddan. "a pirate. if i don't getback, you and the others can't work this ship, and presently the police of krim will askwhy. they'll recheck my careful forgeries, and you'll all be hung for piracy. so don'tlet anybody in. don't talk to anybody. if you do—pfft!" he drew his finger across his throat, andnodded, and went cheerfully out the crew's

landing-door in the very base of the ship.he went across the tarmac and out between two of the gigantic steel arches of the grid.he hired a ground vehicle. "where?" asked the driver. "hm-m-m," said hoddan. "there's a firm oflawyers.... i can't remember the name—" "there's millions of 'em," said the driver. "this is a special one," explained hoddan."it's so dignified they won't talk to you unless you're a great-grandson of a client.they're so ethical they won't touch a case of under a million credits. they've got aboutnineteen names in the firm title and—" "oh!" said the ground-car driver. "that'llbe— hell! i can't remember the name either.

but i'll take you there." he drove out into traffic. hoddan relaxed.then he tensed again. he had not been in a city since he stopped briefly in this on theway to darth. the traffic was abominable. and he, who'd been in various pitched battleson darth and had only lately captured a ship in space— hoddan grew apprehensive as hisground-car charged into the thick of hooting, rushing, squealing vehicles. when the carcame to a stop he was relieved. "it's yonder," said the driver. "you'll findthe name on the directory." hoddan paid and went inside the gigantic building.he looked at the directory and shrugged. he went to the downstairs guard. he explainedthat he was looking for a firm of lawyers

whose name was not on the directory list.they were extremely conservative and of the highest possible reputation. they didn't seekclients— "forty-two and forty-three," said the guard,frowning. "i ain't supposed to give it out, but—floors forty-two and-three." hoddan went up. he was unknown. a receptionistlooked at him with surprised aversion. "i have a case of space piracy," said hoddanpolite. "a member of the firm, please." ten minutes later he eased himself into theeasiest of easy-chairs. a gray-haired man of infinite dignity said: "i am," said hoddan modestly, "a pirate. ihave a ship in the spaceport with very convincing

papers and a cargo of rigellian furs, jewelryfrom the cetis planets, and a rather large quantity of bulk melacynth. i want to disposeof the cargo and invest a considerable part of the proceeds in conservative stocks onkrim." the lawyer frowned. he looked shocked. thenhe said carefully: "you made two statements. one was that youare a pirate. taken by itself, that is not my concern. the other is that you wish todispose of certain cargo and invest in reputable businesses on krim. i assume that there isno connection between the two observations." he paused. hoddan said nothing. the lawyerwent on, with dignity: "of course our firm is not in the brokeragebusiness. however, we can represent you in

your dealing with local brokers. and obviouslywe can advise you—" "i also wish to buy," said hoddan, "a completeshipload of agricultural machinery, a microfilm technical library, machine tools, vision-tapetechnical instructors and libraries of tape for them, generators, and such things." "hm-m-m," said the lawyer. "i will send oneof our clerks to examine your cargo so he can deal properly with the brokers. you willtell him in detail what you wish to buy." hoddan stood up. "i'll take him to the ship now." he was mildly surprised at the smoothnesswith which matters proceeded. he took a young

clerk to the ship. he showed him the ship'spapers as edited by himself. he took him through the cargo holds. he discussed in some detailwhat he wished to buy. when the clerk left, thal came to complainagain. "look here!" he said bitterly, "we've scrubbedthis ship from one end to the other! there's not a speck or a fingermark on it. and we'restill scrubbing! we captured this ship! is this pirate revels?" "there's money coming. i'll let you boys ashorewith some cash in your pockets presently." brokers came, escorted by the lawyer's clerk.they squabbled furiously with him. but the dignity of the firm he represented was extreme.there was no suspicion—no overt suspicion

anyhow—and the furs went. the clerk painstakinglyinformed hoddan that he could draw so much. more brokers came. the jewelry went. the lawyer'sclerk jotted down figures and told hoddan the net. the bulk melacynth was taken overby a group of brokers, none of whom could handle it alone. hoddan drew cash and sent his darthians ashorewith a thousand credits apiece. with bright and shining faces, they headed for the nearestbars. "as soon as my ship's loaded," hoddan toldthe clerk, "i'll want to get them out of jail." the clerk nodded. he brought salesmen of agriculturalmachinery. representatives of microfilm libraries. manufacturers of generators, vision-tape instructorsand allied lines. hoddan bought, painstakingly.

delivery was promised for the next day. "now," said the clerk, "about the investmentsyou wish to make with the balance?" "i'll want a reasonable sum in cash," saidhoddan reflectively. "but.... well ... i've been told that insurance is a fine, conservativebusiness. as i understand it, most insurance organizations are divided into divisions whichare separately incorporated. there will be a life-insurance division, a casualty division,and so on. is that right? and one may invest in any of them separately?" the clerk said impassively: "i was given to understand, sir, that youare interested in risk-insurance. perhaps

especially risk-insurance covering piracy.i was given quotations on the risk-insurance divisions of all krim companies. of coursethose are not very active stocks, but if there were a rumor of a pirate ship acting in thispart of the galaxy, one might anticipate—" "i do," said hoddan. "let's see. ... my cargobrought so much.... hm-m-m.... my purchases will come to so much. hm-m-m.... my legalfees, of course.... i mentioned a sum in cash. yes. this will be the balance, more or less,which you will put in the stocks you've named, but since i anticipate activity in them. i'llwant to leave some special instructions." he gave a detailed, thoughtful account ofwhat he anticipated might be found in news reports of later dates. the clerk noted itall down, impassively. hoddan added instructions.

"yes, sir," said the clerk without intonationwhen he was through. "if you will come to the office in the morning, sir, the paperswill be drawn up and matters can be concluded. your new cargo can hardly be delivered beforethen, and if i may say so, sir, your crew won't be ready. i'd estimate two hours offestivity for each man, and fourteen hours for recovery." "thank you," said hoddan. "i'll see you inthe morning." he sealed up the ship when the lawyer's clerkdeparted. then he felt lonely. he was the only living thing in the ship. his footstepsechoed hollowly. there was nobody to speak to. not even anybody to threaten. he'd donea lot of threatening lately.

he went forlornly to the cabin once occupiedby the liner's former skipper. his loneliness increased. he began to feel those dauntingself-doubts such as plague the most unselfish and conscientious people. his actions to date,of course, did not trouble him. today's actions were the ones which bothered his conscience.he felt that they were not quite adequate. the balance left in the lawyer's hands wouldnot be nearly enough to cover a certain deficit which in justice he felt himself bound tomake up. it had been his thought to make this enterprise self-liquidating—everybody concernedmaking a profit, including the owners of the ship and cargo he had pirated. but he wasn'tsure. he reflected that his grandfather would nothave been disturbed about such a matter. that

elderly pirate would have felt wholly at ease.it was his conviction that piracy was an essential part of the working of the galaxy's economicsystem. hoddan, indeed, could remember him saying precisely, snipping off the ends ofhis words as he spoke: "i tell y', piracy's what keeps the galaxy'sbusiness thriving! everybody knows business suffers when retail trade slacks down. itbacks up the movement of inventories. they get too big. that backs up orders to the factories.they lay off men. and when men are laid off they don't have money to spend, so retailtrade slacks off some more, and that backs up inventories some more, and that backs uporders to factories and makes unemployment and hurts retail trade again. it's a feed-back.see?" it was hoddan's grandfather's custom,

at this point, to stare shrewdly at each ofhis listeners in turn. "but suppose somebody pirates a ship? theowners don't lose. it's insured. they order another ship built right away. men get hiredto build it and they're paid money to spend in retail trade and that moves inventoriesand industry picks up. more'n that, more people insure against piracy. insurance companieshire more clerks and bookkeepers. they get more money for retail trade and to move inventoriesand keep factories going and get more people hired.... y'see? it's piracy that keeps businessin this galaxy goin'!" hoddan had known doubts about this, but itcould not be entirely wrong. he'd put a good part of the proceeds of his piracy in risk-insurancestocks, and he counted on them to make all

his actions as benevolent to everybody concernedas his intentions had been, and were. but it might not be true enough. it might be lessthan ... well ... sufficiently true in a particular instance. and therefore— then he saw how things could be worked outso that there could be no doubt. he began to work out the details. he drifted off tosleep in the act of composing a letter in his head to his grandfather on the pirateplanet zan. when morning came on krim, catawheel truckscame bringing gigantic agricultural machines of a sort that would normally never be shippedby space freight. there came generators and turbines and tanks of plastic, and vision-tapeinstructors and great boxes full of tape for

them. there were machine tools and cuttingtips—these last in vast quantity—and very many items that the emigrants of colin probablywould not expect, and might not even recognize. the cargo holds of the liner filled. he went to the office of his attorneys. heread and signed papers, in an atmosphere of great dignity and ethical purpose. the lawyer'sclerk attended him to the police office, where seven dreary darthians with oversized hangoverstried dismally to cheer themselves by memories of how they got that way. he got them outand to the ship. the lawyer's clerk produced a rather weighty if small box with an airof extreme solemnity. "the currency you wanted, sir."

"thank you," said hoddan. "that's the lastof our business?" "yes, sir," said the clerk. he hesitated,and for the first time showed a trace of human curiosity. "could i ask a question, sir, aboutpiracy?" "why not?" asked hoddan. "go ahead." "when you ... ah ... captured this ship, sir,"said the clerk hopefully, "did you ... ah ... shoot the men and keep the women?" hoddan sighed. "much," he said regretfully, "as i hate tospoil an enlivening theory—no. these are modern days. efficiency has invaded even thepirate business. i used my crew for floor-scrubbing

and cookery." he closed the ship port gently and went upto the control room to call the landing grid operators. in minutes the captured liner,loaded down again, lifted toward the stars. and all the journey back to darth was as anticlimacticas that. there was no trouble finding the space yacht in its remote orbit. hoddan sentout an unlocking signal, and a keyed transmitter began to send a signal on which to home. whenthe liner nudged alongside it, hoddan's last contrivance operated and the yacht clung fastto the larger ship's hull. there were four days in overdrive. there were three or fourpauses for position-finding. the stop-over on krim had cost some delay, but hoddan arrivedback at a positive sight of darth's sun within

a day or so of standard space drive directfrom walden. then there was little or no time lost in getting into orbit with the junk yardspace fleet of the emigrants. shortly thereafter he called the leader's ship with only mildworries about possible disasters that might have happened while he was away. "calling the leader's ship," he said crisply."calling the leader's ship! this is bron hoddan, reporting back from walden with a ship andmachinery contributed for your use!" the harsh voice of the bearded old leaderof the emigrants seemed somehow broken when he replied. he called down blessings on hoddan,who could use them. then there was the matter of getting emigrants on board the new ship.they didn't know how to use the boat-blister

lifeboat tubes. hoddan had to demonstrate.but shortly after there were twenty, thirty, fifty of the folk from colin, feverishly searchingthe ship and incredulously reporting what they found. "it's impossible!" said the old man. "it'simpossible!" "i wouldn't say that," said hoddan. "it'sunlikely, but it's happened. i'm only afraid it's not enough." "it is ... many times what we hoped," saidthe old man humbly. "only—" he stopped. "we are more grateful than we can say." hoddan took a deep breath.

"i'd like to take my crew back home," he explained."and come back and ... well ... perhaps i can be useful explaining things. and i'd liketo ask a great favor of you ... for my own work." "but naturally," said the old man. "of course.we will await your return. naturally! and ... perhaps we can ... we can arrange something—" hoddan was relieved. there did seem a slightlystrange limitation to the happiness of the emigrants. they were passionately rejoicefulover the agricultural machinery. but they seemed rather dutifully than truly happy overthe microfilm library. the vision-tape instructors were the objects of polite comment only. hoddanfelt a vague discomfort. there seemed to be

a sort of secret desperation in the atmosphere,which they would not admit or mention. but he was coming back. of course. he brought the spaceboat over to the new liner.he hooked onto a lifeboat blister and his seven darthians crawled through the lifeboattube. hoddan pulled away quickly before somebody thought to ask why there were no lifeboatsin the places so plainly made for them. he headed downward when the landmarks on darth'ssurface told him that don loris' castle would shortly come over the horizon. he was justtouching atmosphere when it did. the boat's rocket-tanks had been refilled, and he burnedfuel recklessly to make a dramatic landing within a hundred yards of the battlementswhere fani had once thoughtfully had a coil

of rope ready for him. heads peered at the lifeboat over those samebattlements now, but the gate was closed. it stayed closed. there was somehow an atmosphereof suspicion amounting to enmity. hoddan felt unwelcome. "all right, boys," he said resignedly. "outwith you and to the castle. you've got your loot from the voyage"—he'd counted out foreach of them rather more actual cash than any of them really believed in—"and i wantyou to take this box to don loris. it's a gift from me. and i want to—consult withhim about co-operation between the two of us in ... ah ... some plans i have. ask ifi may come and talk to him."

his seven former spearmen tumbled out. theymarched gleefully to the castle gate. hoddan saw them tantalizingly displaying large sumsin cash to the watchers above them. thal held up the box for don loris. it was the box thelawyer's clerk had turned over to him, with a tidy sum in cash in it. the sum was partlydepleted, now. hoddan had paid off his involuntary crew with it—had paid them, in fact, asif they'd done the fighting they'd expected and he'd thought would be necessary. but therewas still more in it than don loris would have gotten from walden for selling him out. the castle gate opened, as if grudgingly.the seven went in. with the box. time passed. much time. hoddan went over thearguments he meant to use on don loris. he

needed to make up a very great sum, and itcould be done thus-and-so, but thus-and-so required occasional piratical raids, whichcalled for pirate crews, and if don loris would encourage his retainers— he couldhave gone to another darthian chieftain, of course, but he knew what kind of scoundreldon loris was. he'd have to find out about another man. nearly an hour elapsed before the castle gateopened again. two files of spearmen marched out. there were eight men with a sergeantin command. hoddan did not recognize any of them. they came to the spaceboat. the sergeantformally presented an official message. don loris would admit bron hoddan to his presence,to hear what he had to say.

hoddan felt excessively uncomfortable. waiting,he'd thought about that secret despair in the emigrant fleet. he worried about it. hewas concerned because don loris had not welcomed him with cordiality, now that he'd broughtback his retainers in good working order. in a sudden gloomy premonition, he checkedhis stun-pistols. they needed charging. he managed it from the lifeboat unit. he went forebodingly toward the castle withthe eight spearmen surrounding him as cops had once surrounded him on walden. he didnot like to be reminded of it. he frowned to himself as he went in the castle gate,and along a long stone passage, and up stone stairs into the great hall of state. don loris,as once before, sat peevishly by the huge

fireplace. this time he was almost insideit, with its hood and mantel actually over his head. the lady fani sat there with him. don loris seemed to put aside his peevishnessonly a little to greet hoddan. "my dear fellow," he said complainingly, "idon't like to welcome you with reproaches, but do you know that when you absconded withthat spaceboat, you made a mortal enemy for me? it's a fact! my neighbor, on whose landthe boat descended, was deeply hurt. he considered it his property. he had summoned his retainersfor a fight over it when i heard of his resentment and partly soothed him with apologies andpresents. but he still considers that i should return it to him, whenever you appear herewith it!"

"oh," said hoddan. "that's too bad." things looked ominous. the lady fani lookedat him strangely. as if she tried to tell him something without speaking it. she lookedas if she had wept lately. "to be sure," said don loris fretfully, "yougave me a very pretty present just now. but my retainers tell me that you came back witha ship. a very fine ship. what became of it? the landing grid has been repaired at lastand you could have landed it. what happened to it?" "i gave it away," said hoddan. he saw whatfani was trying to tell him. one corridor ... no, two ... leading toward the great hallwas filled with spearmen. his tone turned

sardonic. "i gave it to a poor old man." don loris shook his head. "that's not right, hoddan! that fleet overhead,now. if they are pirates and want some of my men for crews, they should come to me!i don't take kindly to the idea of your kidnaping my men and carrying them off on piraticalexcursions! they must be profitable! but if you can afford to give me presents like that,and be so lavish with my retainers ... why i don't see why—" hoddan grimaced. "i came to arrange a deal on that order,"he observed.

"i don't think i like it," said don lorispeevishly. "i prefer to deal with people direct. i'll arrange about the landing grid, and fora regular recruiting service which i will conduct, of course. but you ... you are irresponsible!i wish you well, but when you carry my men off for pirates, and make my neighbors intomy enemies, and infect my daughter with strange notions and the government of a friendly planetasks me in so many words not to shelter you any longer ... why that's the end, hoddan.so with great regret—" "the regret is mine," said hoddan. thoughtfully,he aimed a stun-pistol at a slowly opening door. he pulled the trigger. yells followedits humming, because not everybody it hit was knocked out. nor did it hit everybodyin the corridor. men came surging out of one

door, and then two, to require the attentionof his weapons. then a spear went past hoddan's face and missedhim only by inches. it buried its point in the floor. a whirling knife spun past hisnose. he glanced up. there were balconies all around the great hall, and men poppedup from behind the railings and threw things at him. they popped down out of sight instantly.there was no rhythm involved. he could not anticipate their rising, nor shoot them throughthe balcony front. and more men infiltrated the hall, getting behind heavy chairs andtables, to push toward him behind them as shovable shields. more spears and knives flew. "bron!" cried the lady fani, throatily.

he thought she had an exit for him. he sprangto her side. "i ... i didn't want you to come," she wept. there was a singular pause in the clangingsand clashings of weapons on the floor. for a second the noises continued. then they stopped.then one man popped up and hurled a knife. the clang of its fall was a very lonely one.don loris fairly howled at him. "idiot! think of the lady fani!" the lady fani suddenly smiled tremulously. "wonderful!" she said. "they don't dare doanything while you're as close to me as this!" "do you suppose," asked hoddan, "i could counton that?"

"i'm certain of it!" said fani. "and i thinkyou'd better." "then, excuse me," said hoddan with greatpoliteness. he swung her up and over his shoulder. witha stun-pistol in his free hand he headed down "outside," she said zestfully. "get out theside door and turn left, and nobody can jump down on your neck. then left again to thegate." he obeyed. now and again he got in a pot-shotwith his pistol. don loris had turned the castle into a very pretty trap. the lady fanisaid plaintively: "this is terribly undignified, and i can'tsee where we're going. where are we now?" "almost at the gate," panted hoddan. "at it,now." he swung out of the massive entrance

to don loris' stronghold. "i can put you downnow." "i wouldn't," said the lady fani. "in spiteof the end of me that's uppermost, i think you'd better make for the spaceboat exactlyas we are." again hoddan obeyed, racing across the openground. howls of fury followed him. it was evidently the opinion of the castle that thelady fani was to be abducted in the place of the seven returned spearmen. hoddan, breathing hard, reached the spaceboat.he put fani down and said anxiously: "you're all right? i'm very much in your debt!i was in a spot!" then he nodded toward the castle. "they are upset, aren't they? theymust think i mean to kidnap you."

the lady fani beamed. "it would be terrible if you did," she saidhopefully. "i couldn't do a thing to stop you! and a successful public abduction's alegal marriage, on darth! wouldn't it be terrible?" hoddan mopped his face and patted her reassuringlyon the shoulder. "don't worry!" he said warmly. "you just gotme out of an awful fix! you're my friend! and anyhow i'm going to marry a girl on walden,named nedda. good-by, fani! keep clear of the rocket blast." he went into the boatport, turned to beampaternally back at her, and shut the port behind him. seconds later the spaceboat tookoff. it left behind clouds of rocket smoke.

and, though hoddan hadn't the faintest ideaof it, it left behind the maddest girl in several solar systems.x it is the custom of all men, everywhere, tobe obtuse where women are concerned. hoddan went skyward in the spaceboat with feelingsof warm gratitude toward the lady fani. he had not the slightest inkling that she, whohad twice spoiled her father's skulduggery so far as it affected him, felt any but thefriendliest of feelings toward him. he remembered that he had kept her from the necessity ofadjusting to matrimony with the lord ghek. it did not occur to him that most girls intendto adjust to marriage with somebody, anyhow, and he did not even suspect that it is a feminineinstinct to make a highly dramatic and romantic

production of their marriage so they'll havesomething to be sentimental about in later years. as hoddan drove on up and up, the sky becamedeep purple and then black velvet set with flecks of fire. he was relieved by the welcomehe'd received earlier today from the emigrants, but he remained slightly puzzled by a veryfaint impression of desperation remaining. he felt very virtuous on the whole, however,and his plans for the future were specific. he'd already composed a letter to his grandfather,which he'd ask the emigrant fleet to deliver. he had another letter in his mind—a formletter, practically a public-relations circular—which he hoped to whip into shape before the emigrantsgot too anxious to be on their way. he considered

that he needed to earn a little more of theirgratitude so he could make everything come out even; self-liquidated; everybody satisfiedand happy but himself. for himself he anticipated only the deep satisfactionof accomplishment. he'd wanted to do great things since he was a small boy, and in electronicssince his adolescence, when he'd found textbooks in the libraries of looted spaceships. he'dgone to walden in the hope of achievement. there, of course, he failed because in a freeeconomy industrialists consider that freedom is the privilege to be stupid without penalty.in other than free economies, of course, stupidity is held to be the duty of administrators.but hoddan now believed himself in the fascinating situation of having knowledge and abilitieswhich were needed by people who knew their

need. it was only when he'd made contact with thefleet, and was in the act of maneuvering toward a boat-blister on the liner he'd brought back,that doubts again assailed him. he had done a few things—accomplished a little. he'ddevised a broadcast-power receptor and a microwave projector and he'd turned a lawlor drive intoa ball lightning projector and worked out a few little things like that. but the firsthad been invented before by somebody in the cetis cluster, and the second could have beenmade by anybody and the third was standard practice on zan. he still had to do somethingsignificant. when he made fast to the liner and crawledthrough the boat-tube to its hull, he was

in a state of doubt which passed very wellfor modesty. the bearded old man received him in the skipper'squarters, which hoddan himself had occupied for a few days. he looked very weary. he seemedto have aged, in hours. "we grow more astounded by the minute," hetold hoddan heavily, "by what you have brought us. ten shiploads like this and we would bebetter equipped than we believed ourselves in the beginning. it looks as if some thousandsof us will now be able to survive our colonization of the planet thetis." hoddan gaped at him. the old man put his handon hoddan's shoulder. "we are grateful," he said with a patheticattempt at warmth. "please do not doubt that!

it is only that ... that— you had to acceptwhat was given for our use. but i cannot help wishing very desperately that ... that insteadof unfamiliar tools for metal-working and machines with tapes which show pictures....i wish that even one more jungle-plow had been included!" hoddan's jaw dropped. the people of colinwanted planet-subduing machinery. they wanted it so badly that they did not want anythingelse. they could not even see that anything else had any value at all. most of them couldonly look forward to starvation when the ship supplies were exhausted, because not enoughground could be broken and cultivated early enough to grow food enough in time.

"would it," asked the old man desperately,"be possible to exchange these useless machines for others that will be useful?" "l—let me talk to your mechanics, sir,"said hoddan unhappily. "maybe something can be done." he restrained himself from tearing his hairas he went to where mechanics of the fleet looked over their treasure-trove. he'd comeup to the fleet again to gloat and do great things for people who needed him and knewit. but he faced the hopelessness of people to whom his utmost effort seemed mockery becauseit was so far from being enough. he gathered together the men who'd tried tokeep the fleet's ships in working order during

their flight. they were competent men, ofcourse. they were resolute. but now they had given up hope. hoddan began to lecture them.they needed machines. he hadn't brought the machines they wanted, perhaps, but he'd broughtthe machines to make them with. here were automatic shapers, turret lathes, dicers.here were cutting-points for machines these machines could make, to make the machinesthe colony on thetis would require. he'd brought these because they had the raw material. theyhad their ships themselves! even some of the junk they carried in crates was good metal,merely worn out in its present form. they could make anything they needed with whathe'd brought them. for example, he'd show them how to make ... say ... a lumber saw.

he showed them how to make a lumber saw—slender,rapierlike revolving tool with which a man stabbed a tree and cut outward with the speedof a knife cutting hot butter. and one could mount it so—and cut out planks and beamsfor temporary bridges and such constructions. they watched, baffled. they gave no sign ofhope. they did not want lumber saws. they wanted jungle-breaking machinery. "i've brought you everything!" he insisted."you've got a civilization, compact, on this ship! you've got life instead of starvation!look at this. i make a water pump to irrigate your fields!" before their eyes he turned out an irrigationpump on an automatic shaper. he showed them

that the shaper went on, by itself, makingother pumps without further instructions than the by-hand control of the tools that formedthe first. the mechanics stirred uneasily. they had watchedwithout comprehension. now they listened without enthusiasm. their eyes were like those ofchildren who watch marvels without comprehension. he made a sledge whose runners slid on airbetween themselves and whatever object would otherwise have touched them. it was practicallyfrictionless. he made a machine to make nails—utterly simple. he made a power hammer which hummedand pushed nails into any object that needed to be nailed. he made— he stopped abruptly, and sat down with hishead in his hands. the people of the fleet

faced so overwhelming a catastrophe that theycould not see into it. they could only experience it. as their leader would have been unableto answer questions about the fleet's predicament before he'd poured out the tale in the formit had taken in his mind, now these mechanics were unable to see ahead. they were paralyzedby the completeness of the disaster before them. they could live until the supplies ofthe fleet gave out. they could not grow fresh supplies without jungle-breaking machinery.they had to have jungle-breaking machinery. they could not imagine wanting anything lessthan jungle-breaking machinery— hoddan raised his head. the mechanics lookeddully at him. "you men do maintenance?" he asked. "you repairthings when they wear out on the ships? have

you run out of some materials you need forrepairs?" after a long time a tired-looking man saidslowly: "on the ship i come from, we're having trouble.our hydroponic garden keeps the air fresh, o'course. but the water-circulation pipesare gone. rusted through. we haven't got any pipe to fix them with. we have to keep thewater moving with buckets." hoddan got up. he looked about him. he hadn'tbrought hydroponic-garden pipe supplies! and there was no raw material. he took a pairof power snips and cut away a section of cargo space wall-lining. he cut it into strips.he asked the diameter of the pipe. before their eyes he made pipe—spirally wound arounda mandril and line-welded to solidity.

"i need some of that on my ship," said anotherman. the bearded man said heavily: "we'll make some and send it to the shipsthat need it." "no," said hoddan. "we'll send the tools tomake it. we can make the tools here. there must be other kinds of repairs that can'tbe made. with the machines i've brought, we'll make the tools to make the repairs. picture-tapemachines have reels that show exactly how to do it." it was a new idea. the mechanics had otherand immediate problems beside the overall disaster of the fleet. pumps that did notwork. motors that heated up. they could envision

the meeting of those problems, and they couldenvision the obtaining of jungle-plows. but they could not imagine anything in between.they were capable of learning how to make tools for repairs. hoddan taught them. in one day there werefive ships being brought into better operating condition—for ultimate futility—becauseof what he'd brought. two days. three. mechanics began to come to the liner. those who'd learnedfirst pompously passed on what they knew. on the fourth day somebody began to use avision-tape machine to get information on a fine point in welding. on the fifth daythere were lines of men waiting to use them. on the sixth day a mechanic on what had beena luxury passenger liner on the other side

of the galaxy—but it was scores of yearsago—asked to talk to hoddan by spacephone. he'd been working feverishly at the minorrepairs he'd been unable to make for so long. to get material he pulled a crate off oneof the junk machines supplied the fleet. he looked it over. he believed that if this piecewere made new, and that replaced with sound metal, the machine might be usable! hoddan had him come to the liner which wasnow the flagship of the fleet. discussion began. shaping such large pieces of metalwhich could be taken from here or there—shaping such large pieces of metal.... hoddan beganto draw diagrams. they were not clear. he drew more. abruptly, he stared at what he'doutlined. electronics.... he saw something

remarkable. if one applied a perfectly well-knownbit of pure-science information that nobody bothered with— he finished the diagram anda vast, soothing satisfaction came over him. "we've got to get out of here!" he said. "notenough room!" he looked about him. insensibly, as he talkedto the first man on the fleet to show imagination, other men had gathered around. they were nowabsorbed. "i think," said hoddan, "that we can makean electronic field that'll soften the cementite between the crystals of steel, without heatingup anything else. if it works, we can make die-forgings and die-stampings with plasticdies! and then that useless junk you've got can be rebuilt—"

they listened gravely, nodding as he talked.they did not quite understand everything, but they had the habit of believing him now.he needed this and that in the huge cargo spaces of the ship the leader had formerlyused. "hm-m-m," said hoddan. "how about duplicatingthese machines and sending them over?" they looked estimatingly at the tool-shopequipment. it could be made to duplicate itself— the new machine shop, in the ancient ark ofspace, made another machine shop for another ship. in the other ship that tool shop wouldmake another for another ship, which in turn.... by then hoddan had a cold-metal die-stamperin operation. it was very large. it drew on the big ship's drive unit for power. one puta rough mass of steel in place between plastic

dies. one turned on the power. for the tenthof a second—no longer—the steel was soft as putty. then it stiffened and was warm.but in that tenth of a second it had been shaped with precision. it took two days to duplicate the jungle-plowhoddan had first been shown, in new sound metal. but after the first one worked triumphantly,they made forty of each part at a time and turned out jungle-plow equipment enough forthe subjugation of all thetis' forests. there were other enterprises on hand, of course.a mechanic who stuttered horribly had an idea. he could not explain it or diagram it. sohe made it. it was an electric motor very far ahead of those in the machines of colin.hoddan waked from a cat nap with a diagram

in his head. he drew it, half-asleep, andlater looked and found that his unconscious mind had designed a power-supply system whichmade walden's look rather primitive— during the first six days hoddan did not sleepto speak of, and after that he merely cat-napped when he could. but he finally agreed withthe emigrants' leader—now no longer fierce, but fiercely triumphant—that he thoughtthey could go on. and he would ask a favor. he propped his eyelids open with his fingersand wrote the letter to his grandfather that he'd composed in his mind in the liner onkrim. he managed to make one copy, unaddressed, of the public-relations letter that he'd workedout at the same time. he put it through a facsimile machine and managed to address eachof fifty copies. then he yawned uncontrollably.

he still yawned when he went to take leaveof the leader of the people of colin. that person regarded him with warm eyes. "i think everything's all right," said hoddanexhaustedly. "you've got a dozen machine shops and they are multiplying themselves, and youhave got some enthusiastic mechanics, now, who're drinking in the vision-tape stuff andfinding out more than they guessed there was. and they're thinking, now and then, for themselves.i think you'll make out." the bearded man said humbly: "i have waited until you said all was well.will you come with us?" "no-o-o," said hoddan. he yawned again. "i'vegot my work here. there's an ... obligation

i have to meet." "it must be very admirable work," said theold man wistfully. "i wish we had some young men like you among us." "you have," said hoddan. "they will be givingyou trouble presently." the old man shook his head, looking at hoddanvery affectionately indeed. "we will deliver your letters," he said warmly."first to krim, and then to walden. then we will go on and let down your letter and giftto your grandfather on zan. then we will go on toward thetis. our mechanics will workat building machines while we are in overdrive. but also they will build new tool shops andtrain new mechanics, so that every so often

we will need to come out of overdrive to transferthe tools and the men to new ships." hoddan nodded exhaustedly. this was right. "so," said the old man contentedly, "we willsimply make those transfers in orbit about the planets for which we have your letters.but you will pardon us if we only let down your letters, and do not visit those planets?we have prejudices—" "perfectly satisfactory," said hoddan. "soi'll—" "the mechanics you have trained," said theold man proudly, "have made a little ship ready for you. it is not much larger thanyour spaceboat, but it is fit for travel between suns, which will be convenient for your work.i hope you will accept it. there is even a

tiny tool shop on it!" hoddan would have been more touched if hehadn't known about it. but one of the men entrusted with the job had harassedly askedhim for advice. he knew what he was getting. it was the space yacht he'd used before, refurbishedand fitted with everything the emigrants could provide. he affected great surprise and expressed unfeignedappreciation. barely an hour later he transferred to it with the spaceboat in tow. he watchedthe emigrant fleet swing out to emptiness and resume its valiant journey. but it wasnot a hopeless journey, now. in fact, the colony on thetis ought to start out better-equippedthan most settled planets.

and he went to sleep. he'd nothing urgentto do, except allow a certain amount of time to pass before he did anything. he was exhausted.he slept the clock around, and waked and ate sluggishly, and went back to sleep again.on the whole, the cosmos did not notice the difference. stars flamed in emptiness, andplanets rotated sedately on their axes. comets flung out gossamer veils or retracted them,and space liners went about upon their lawful occasions. and lovers swore by stars and moons—oftenquite different stars and moons—and various things happened which had nothing to do withhoddan. but when he waked again he was rested, andhe reviewed all his actions and his situation. it appeared that matters promised fairly wellon the emigrant fleet now gone forever. they

would remember hoddan with affection for ayear or so, and dimly after that. but settling a new world would be enthralling and importantwork. nobody'd think of him at all, after a certain length of time. but he had to thinkof an obligation he'd assumed on their account. he considered his own affairs. he'd told fanihe was going to marry nedda. the way things looked, that was no longer so probable. ofcourse, in a year or two, or a few years, he might be out from under the obligationshe now considered due. in time even the waldenian government would realize that deathrays don'texist, and a lawyer might be able to clear things for his return to walden. but—neddawas a nice girl. he frowned. that was it. she was a remarkablynice girl. but hoddan suddenly doubted if

she were a delightful one. he found himselfquestioning that she was exactly and perfectly what his long-cherished ambitions described.he tried to imagine spending his declining years with nedda. he couldn't quite pictureit as exciting. she did tend to be a little insipid— presently, gloomy and a trifle dogged aboutit, he brought the spaceboat around to the modernized boatport of the yacht. he got intoit, leaving the yacht in orbit. he headed down toward darth. now that he'd rested, hehad work to do which could not be neglected. to carry out that work, he needed a crew ableand willing to pass for pirates for a pirate's pay. and there were innumerable castles ondarth, with quite as many shiftly noblemen,

and certainly no fewer plunder-hungry darthiangentlemen hanging around them. but don loris' castle had one real advantage and one whichexisted only in hoddan's mind. don loris' retainers did know that hoddanhad led their companions to loot. large loot. he'd have less trouble and more enthusiasticsupport from don loris' retainers than any other. this was true. the illusion was that the lady fani was hisfirm personal friend with no nonsense about her. this was a very great mistake. he landed for the fourth time outside donloris' castle. this time he had no booty-laden men to march to the castle and act as heraldsof his presence. the spaceboat's visionscreens

showed don loris' stronghold as immense, darkand menacing. banners flew from its turrets, their colors bright in the ruddy light ofnear-sunset. the gate remained closed. for a long time there was no sign that his landinghad been noted. then there was movement on the battlements, and a figure began to descendoutside the wall. it was lowered to the ground by a long rope. it reached the ground and shook itself. itmarched, toward the spaceboat through the red and nearly level rays of the dying sun.hoddan watched with a frown on his face. this wasn't a retainer of don loris'. it assuredlywasn't fani. he couldn't even make out its gender until the figure was very near.

then he looked astonished. it was his oldfriend derec, arrived on darth a long while since in the spaceboat hoddan had been usingever since. derec had been his boon companion in the days when he expected to become richby splendid exploits in electronics. derec was also the character who'd conscientiouslytold the cops on hoddan, when they found his power-receptor sneaked into a mid-continentstation and a stray corpse coincidentally outside. he opened the boatport and stood in the opening.derec had been a guest—anyhow an inhabitant—of don loris' castle for a good long while, now.hoddan wondered if he considered his quarters cozy.

"evening, derec," said hoddan cordially. "you'relooking well!" "i don't feel it," said derec dismally. "ifeel like a fool in the castle yonder. and the high police official i came here withhas gotten grumpy and snaps when i try to speak to him." hoddan said gravely: "i'm sure the lady fani—" "a tigress!" said derec bitterly. "we don'tget along." looking at derec, hoddan found himself ableto understand why. derec was the sort of friend one might make on walden for lack of somethingbetter. he was well-meaning. he might be capable

of splendid things—even heroism. but hewas horribly, terribly, appallingly civilized! "well! well!" said hoddan kindly. "and what'son your mind, derec?" "i came," said derec dismally, "to plead withyou again, bron. you must surrender! there's nothing else to do! people can't have deathrays,bron! above all, you mustn't tell the pirates how to make them!" hoddan was puzzled for a moment. then he realizedthat derec's information about the fleet came from the spearmen he'd brought back, loadeddown with cash. derec hadn't noticed the absence of the flashing lights at sunset—or hadn'trealized that they meant the fleet was gone away.

"hm-m-m," said hoddan. "why don't you thinki've already done it?" "because they'd have killed you," said derec."don loris pointed that out. he doesn't believe you know how to make deathrays. he says it'snot a secret anybody would be willing for anybody else to know. but ... you know thetruth, bron! you killed that poor man back on walden. you've got to sacrifice yourselffor humanity! you'll be treated kindly!" hoddan shook his head. it seemed somehow verystartling for derec to be harping on that same idea, after so many things had happenedto hoddan. but he didn't think derec would actually expect him to yield to persuasion.there must be something else. derec might even have nerved himself up to something quitedesperate.

"what did you really come here for, derec?" "to beg you to—" then, in one instant, derec made an hystericalgesture and hoddan's stun-pistol hummed. a small object left derec's hand as his musclesconvulsed from the stun-pistol bolt. it did not fly quite true. it fell a foot or so toone side of the boatport instead of inside. it exploded luridly as derec crumpled fromthe pistol bolt. there was thick, strangling smoke. hoddan disappeared. when the thickestsmoke drifted away there was nothing to be seen but derec, lying on the ground, and thinnersmoke drifting out of the still-open boatport. nearly half an hour later, figures came verycautiously toward the spaceboat. thal was

their leader. his expression was mournfuland depressed. other brawny retainers came uncertainly behind him. at a nod from thal,two of them picked up derec and carted him off toward the castle. "i guess he got it," said thal dismally. he peered in. he shook his head. "wounded, maybe, and crawled off to die." he peered in again and shook his head oncemore. "no sign of 'im." a spearman just behind thal said:

"dirty trick! i was with him to walden, andhe paid off good! a good man! shoulda been a chieftain! good man!" thal entered the spaceboat. gingerly. he wrinkledhis nose at the faint smell of explosive still inside. another man came in. another. "say!" said one of them in a conspiratorialvoice. "we got our share of that loot from walden. but he hadda share, too! what'd hedo with it? he could've kept it in this boat here. we could take a quick look! what donloris don't know don't hurt him!" "i'm going to find hoddan first," said thal,with dignity. "we don't have to carry him outside so's don loris knows we're lookingfor loot, but i'm going to find him first."

there were other men in the spaceboat now.a full dozen of them. their spears were very much in the way. the boat door closed quietly. don loris' retainersstared at each other. the locking-dogs grumbled for half a second, sealing the door tightly.don loris' retainers began to babble protestingly. there was a roaring outside. the spaceboatstirred. the roaring rose to thunder. the boat lurched. it flung the spearmen into asprawling, swearing, terrified heap at the rear end of the boat's interior. the boat went on out to space again. in thecontrol room hoddan said dourly to himself: "i'm in a rut! i've got to figure out someway to ship a pirate crew without having to

kidnap them. this is getting monotonous!"xi there was a disturbing air which was sharedby all the members of hoddan's crew, on the way to walden. it was not exactly reluctance,because there was self-evident enthusiasm over the idea of making a pirate voyage underhim. so far as past enterprises were concerned, hoddan as a leader was the answer to a darthiangentleman's prayer. the partial looting of ghek's castle, alone, would have made hima desirable leader. but a crew of seven, returned from space, had displayed currency which amountedto the wealth of fabled ind. nobody knew what ind was, any longer, but it was a synonymfor fabulous and uncountable riches. when men went off with hoddan, they came back rich.

but nevertheless there was an uncomfortablesort of atmosphere in the renovated yacht. they'd transshipped from the spaceboat tothe yacht through lifeboat tubes, and they were quite docile about it because none ofthem knew how to get back to ground. hoddan left the spaceboat with a triggerable timing-signalset for use on his return. he'd done a similar thing off krim. he drove the little yachtwell out, until darth was only a spotted ball with visible clouds and ice caps. then helined up for walden, direct, and went into overdrive. within hours he noted the disturbing feelof things. his followers were not happy. they moped. they sat in corners and submerged themselvesin misery. large, massive men with drooping

blond mustaches—ideal characters for theroles of pirates—tended to squeeze tears out of their eyes at odd moments. when theship was twelve hours on its way, the atmosphere inside it was funereal. the spearmen did noteven gorge themselves on the food with which the yacht was stocked. and when a darthiangentleman lost his appetite, something had to be wrong. he called thal into the control room. "what's the matter with the gang?" he demandedvexedly. "they look at me as if i'd broken all their hearts! do they want to go back?" thal heaved a sigh, indicating depressionbeside which suicidal mania would be hilarity.

he said pathetically: "we cannot go back. we cannot ever returnto darth. we are lost men, doomed to wander forever among strangers, or to float as corpsesbetween the stars." "what happened?" demanded hoddan. "i'm takingyou on a pirate cruise where the loot should be a lot better than last time!" thal wept. hoddan astonishedly regarded hiswhiskery countenance, contorted with grief and dampened with tears. "it happened at the castle," said thal miserably."the man derec, from walden, had thrown a bomb at you. you seemed to be dead. but donloris was not sure. he fretted, as he does.

he wished to send someone to make sure. thelady fani said; 'i will make sure!' she called me to her and said, 'thal, will you fightfor me?' and there was don loris suddenly nodding beside her. so i said, 'yes, my ladyfani.' then she said; 'thank you. i am troubled by bron hoddan.' so what could i do? she saidthe same thing to each of us, and each of us had to say that he would fight for her.to each she said that she was troubled by you. then don loris sent us out to look atyour body. and now we are disgraced!" hoddan's mouth opened and closed and openedagain. he remembered this item of darthian etiquette. if a girl asked a man if he wouldfight for her, and he agreed, then within a day and a night he had to fight the manshe sent him to fight, or else he was disgraced.

and disgrace on darth meant that the shamedman could be plundered or killed by anybody who chose to do so, but he would be hangedby indignant authority if he resisted. it was a great deal worse than outlawry. it includedscorn and contempt and opprobrium. it meant dishonor and humiliation and admitted degradation.a disgraced man was despicable in his own eyes. and hoddan had kidnaped these men who'dbeen forced to engage themselves to fight him, and if they killed him they would obviouslydie in space, and if they didn't they'd be ashamed to stay alive. the moral tone on darthwas probably not elevated, but etiquette was a force. hoddan thought it over. he looked up suddenly.

"some of them," he said wryly, "probably figurethere's nothing to do but go through with it, eh?" "yes," said thal dismally. "then we will alldie." "hm-m-m," said hoddan. "the obligation isto fight. if you fail to kill me, that's not your fault, is it? if you're conquered, you'rein the clear?" thal said miserably: "true. too true! when a man is conquered heis conquered. his conqueror may plunder him, when the matter is finished, or he can sparehim, when he may never fight his conqueror again."

"draw your knife," said hoddan. "come at me." thal bewilderedly made the gesture. hoddanleveled a stun-pistol and said: "bzzz. you're conquered. you came at me withyour knife, and i shot you with my stun-pistol. it's all over. right?" thal gaped at him. then he beamed. he expanded.he gloated. he frisked. he practically wagged a nonexistent tail in his exuberance. he'dbeen shown an out when he could see none. "send in the others one by one," said hoddan."i'll take care of them. but thal—why did the lady fani want me killed?" thal had no idea, but he did not care. hoddandid care. he was bewildered and inclined to

be indignant. a noble friendship like theirs—a spearman, came in and saluted. hoddan went through a symbolic duel, which was plainlythe way the thing would have happened in reality. others came in and went through the same process.two of them did not quite grasp that it was a ritual, and he had to shoot them in theknife arm. then he hunted in the ship's supplies for ointment for the blisters that would appearfrom stun-pistol bolts at such short range. as he bandaged the places, he again triedto find out why the lady fani had tried to get him carved up by the large-bladed knivesall darthian gentlemen wore. nobody could enlighten him. but the atmosphere improved remarkably. sinceeach theoretic fight had taken place in private,

nobody was obliged to admit a compromise withetiquette. hoddan's followers ceased to brood. they developed huge appetites. those who hadbeen aground on krim told zestfully of the monstrous hangovers they'd acquired there.it appeared that hoddan was revered for the size of the benders he enabled his followersto hang on. but there remained the fact that the ladyfani had tried to get him massacred. he puzzled over it. the little yacht sped through spacetoward walden. he tried to think how he'd offended fani. he could think of nothing.he set to work on a new electronic setup which would make still another modification of thelawlor space-drive possible. in the others, groups of electronic components were cut outand others substituted in rather tricky fashion

from the control board. this was trickiestof all. it required the home-made vacuum tube to burn steadily when in use. but it was avery simple idea. lawlor drive and landing grid force fields were formed by not dissimilargenerators, and ball lightning force fields were in the same general family of phenomena.suppose one made the field generator that had to be on a ship if it was to drive atall, capable of all those allied, associated, similar force fields? if a ship could makethe fields that landing grids did, it should be useful to pirates. hoddan's present errand was neither pure norsimple piracy, but piracy it would be. the more he considered the obligation he'd takenon himself when he helped the emigrant-fleet,

the more he doubted that he could lift itwithout long struggle. he was preparing to carry on that struggle for a long time. he'dmore or less resigned himself to the postponement of his personal desires. nedda, for example.he wasn't quite sure— perhaps, after all— but time passed, and he finished his electronicjob. he came out of overdrive and made his observations and corrected his course. finally,there came a moment when the fiery ball which was walden's sun shone brightly in the visionplates. it writhed and spun in the vast silence of emptiness. hoddan drove to a point still above the five-diameterlimit of walden. he interestedly switched on the control which made his drive-unit manufacturelanding-grid-type force fields. he groped

for walden, and felt the peculiar rigidityof the ship when the field took hold somewhere underground. he made an adjustment, and feltthe ship respond. instead of pulling a ship to ground, in the setup he'd made, the newfields pulled the ground toward the ship. when he reversed the adjustment, instead ofpushing the ship away to empty space, the new field pushed the planet. there was no practical difference, of course.the effect was simply that the space yacht now carried its own landing grid. it coulddescend anywhere and ascend from anywhere without using rockets. moreover, it couldhover without using power. hoddan was pleased. he took the yacht downto a bare four-hundred-mile altitude. he stopped

it there. it was highly satisfactory. he madequite certain that everything worked as it should. then he made a call on the space communicator. "calling ground," said hoddan. "calling ground.pirate ship calling ground!" he waited for an answer. now he'd find outthe result of very much effort and planning. he was apprehensive, of course. there wasmuch responsibility on his shoulders. there was the liner he'd captured and looted andgiven to the emigrants. there were his followers on the yacht, now enthusiastically sharpeningtheir two-foot knife blades in expectation of loot. he owed these people something. foran instant he thought of the lady fani and wondered how he could make reparation to herfor whatever had hurt her feelings so she'd

try to get his throat cut. a whining, bitterly unhappy voice came tohim. "pirate ship!" said the voice plaintively,"we received the fleet's warning. please state where you intend to descend, and we will takemeasures to prevent disorder. repeat, please state where you intend to descend and we willtake measures to prevent disorder—" hoddan drew a sharp breath of relief. he nameda spot—a high-income residential small city some forty miles from the planetary capital.he set his controls for a very gradual descent. he went out to where his followers made grislyzinging noises where they honed their knives. "we'll land," said hoddan sternly, "in aboutthree-quarters of an hour. you will go ashore

and loot in parties of not less than three!thal, you will be ship guard and receive the plunder and make sure that nobody from waldengets on board. you will not waste time committing atrocities on the population!" he went back to the control room. he turnedto general-communication bands and listened to the broadcasts down below. "special emergency bulletin!" boomed a voice."pirates are landing in the city of ensfield, forty miles from walden city. the populationis instructed to evacuate immediately, leaving all action to the police. repeat! the populationwill evacuate ensfield, leaving all action to the police. take nothing with you. takenothing with you. leave at once."

hoddan nodded approvingly. the voice boomedagain: "special emergency bulletin! pirates are landing... evacuate ... take nothing with you.... leave at once...." he turned to another channel. an excited voicebarked: "... seems to be only the one pirate ship,which has been located hovering in an unknown manner over ensfield. we are rushing cameracrews to the spot and will try to give on-the-spot as-it-happens coverage of the landing of pirateson walden, their looting of the city of ensfield, and the traffic jams inevitable in the departureof the citizens before the pirate ship touches ground. for background information on thisthe most exciting event in planetary history,

i take you to our editorial rooms." anothervoice took over instantly. "it will be remembered that some days since the gigantic pirate fleetthen overhead sent down a communication to the planetary government, warning that singleships would appear to loot and giving notice that any resistance—" hoddan felt a contented, heart-warming glow.the emigrant fleet had most faithfully carried out its leader's promise to let down a letterfrom space while in orbit around walden. the emigrants, of course, did not know the contentsof the letter. they would not send anybody down to ground, because of the temptationsto sin in societies other than their own. blithely, and cheerfully, and dutifully, theywould give the appearance of monstrous piratical

strength. they would awe walden thoroughly.and then they'd go on, faithfully leaving similar letters and similar impressions onkrim, and lohala, and tralee, and famagusta, and throughout the coalsack stars until thestock of addressed missives ran out. they would perform this kindly act out of gratitudeto hoddan. and every planet they visited would be leftwith the impression that the fleet overhead was that of bloodthirsty space-marauders whowould presently send single ships to collect loot—which must be yielded without resistance.such looting expeditions were to be looked for regularly and must be submitted to underpenalty of unthinkable retribution from the monster fleet of space.

now, as the yacht descended on walden, itrepresented that mythical but impressive piratical empire of hoddan's contrivance. he listenedwith genuine pleasure to the broadcasts. when low enough, he even picked up the picturesof highways thronged with fugitives from the to-be-looted town. he saw waldenian policedirecting the traffic of flight. he saw other traffic heading toward the city. walden wasthe most highly civilized planet in the nurmi cluster, and its citizens had had no worriesat all except about tranquilizers to enable them to stand it. when something genuinelyexciting turned up, they wanted to be there to see it. the yacht descended below the clouds. hoddanturned on an emergency flare to make a landing

by. sitting in the control room he saw hisown ship as the broadcast cameras picked it up and relayed it to millions of homes. hewas impressed. it was a glaring eye of fierce light, descending deliberately with a darkand mysterious spacecraft behind it. he heard the chattered on-the-spot news accounts ofthe happening. he saw the people who had not left ensfield joined by avid visitors. hesaw all of them held back by police, who frantically shepherded them away from the area in whichthe pirates should begin their horrid work. hoddan even watched pleasurably from his controlroom as the broadcast cameras daringly showed the actual touch-down of the ship; the dramaticslow opening of its entrance port: the appearance of authentic pirates in the opening, armedto the teeth, bristling ferociously, glaring

about them at the here-silent, here-desertedstreets of the city left to their mercy. it was a splendid broadcast. hoddan wouldhave liked to stay and watch all of it. but he had work to do. he had to supervise thepirate raid. it was, as it turned out, simple enough. lootingparties of three pirates each moved skulking about, seeking plunder. quaking cameramendared to ask them, in shaking voices, to pose for the news cameras. it was a request nodarthian gentleman, even in an act of piracy, could possibly refuse. they posed, makingpictures of malignant ruffianism. commentators, adding informed comment to delectablythrilling pictures, observed that the pirates wore darthian costume, but observed crisplythat this did not mean that darth as an entity

had turned pirate, but only that some of hercitizens had joined the pirate fleet. the camera crews then asked apologeticallyif they would permit themselves to be broadcast in the act of looting. growling savagely fortheir public, and occasionally adding even a fiendish "ha!" they obliged. the cameracrews helped pick out good places to loot for the sake of good pictures. the piratesco-operated in fine dramatic style. millions watching vision sets all over the planet shiveredin delicious horror as the pirates went about their nefarious enterprise. presently the press of onlookers could notbe held back by the police. they surrounded the pirates. some, greatly daring, asked forautographs. girls watched them with round,

frightened, fascinated eyes. younger men foundit vastly thrilling to carry burdens of loot back to the pirate ship for them. thal complainedhoarsely that the ship was getting overloaded. hoddan ordered greater discrimination, buthis pirates by this time were in the position of directors rather than looters themselves.romantic waldenian admirers smashed windows and brought them treasure, for the rewardof a scowling acceptance. hoddan had to call it off. the pirate shipwas loaded. it was then the center of an agitated, excited, enthusiastic crowd. he called backhis men. one party of three did not return. he took two others and fought his way throughthe mob. he found the trio backed against a wall while hysterically adoring girls struggledto seize scraps of their garments for mementos

of real, live pirates looting a waldeniantown! but hoddan got them back to the ship, in confusiontending toward the blushful. their clothes were shreds. he fought a way clear for themto get into the ship. he fought his way in. cheers rose from the onlookers. he got thelanding port shut only by the help of police who kept pirate fans from having their fingerscaught in its closing. then the piratical space yacht rose swiftlytoward the stars. an hour later there was barely any diminutionof the excitement inside the ship. darthian gentlemen all, hoddan's followers still gazedand floated over the plunder tucked everywhere. it crowded the living quarters. it threatenedto interfere with the astrogation of the ship.

hoddan came out of the control room and wasannoyed. "break it up!" he snapped. "pack that stuffaway somewhere! what do you think this is?" thal gazed at him abstractedly, not quiteable to tear his mind and thoughts from this completely unimaginable mass of plunder. thenintelligence came into his eyes—as much as could appear there. he grinned suddenly.he slapped his thigh. "boys!" he gurgled. "he don't know what wegot for him!" one man looked up. two. they beamed. theygot to their feet, dripping jewelry. thal went ponderously to one of the two owners'staterooms the yacht contained. at the door he turned, expansively.

"she came to the port," he said exuberantly,"and said we were wearin' clothes like they wore on darth. did we come from there? i saidwe did. then she said did we know somebody named bron hoddan on darth? and i said wedid and if she'd step inside the ship she'd meet you. and here she is!" he unfastened the stateroom door, which hadbeen barred from without. he opened it. he looked in, and grabbed, and pulled at something.hoddan went sick with apprehension. he groaned as the something inside the stateroom sobbedand yielded. thal brought nedda out into the saloon ofthe yacht. her nose and eyes were red from terrified weeping. she gazed about her inpurest despairing horror. she did not see

hoddan for a moment. her eyes were filledwith the brawny, mustachioed piratical figures who were darthian gentlemen and who grinnedat her in what she took for evil gloating. she wailed. hoddan swallowed, with much difficulty, andsaid sickly: "it's all right, nedda. it was a mistake.nothing will happen to you. you're quite"—and he knew with desperate certainty that it wastrue—"safe with me!" and she was.xii hoddan stopped off at krim by landing grid,to consult his lawyers. he felt a certain amount of hope of good results from his raidon walden, but he was desperate about nedda.

once she was confident of her safety underhis protection, she took over the operation of the spaceship. she displayed an overwhelmingsaccharinity that was appalling. she was sweetness and light among criminals who respectfullydid not harm her, and she sweetened and lightened the atmosphere of the space yacht until hoddan'sfollowers were close to mutiny. "it ain't that i mind her being a nice girl,"one of his mustachioed darthians explained almost tearfully to hoddan, "but she wantsto make a nice girl out of me!" hoddan, himself, cringed from her society.he could gladly have put her ashore on krim with ample funds to return to walden. butshe was prettily, reproachfully helpless. if he did put her ashore, she would confideher kidnaping and the lovely behavior of the

pirates until nobody would believe in themany more—which would be fatal. he went to his lawyers, brooding. the newsastounded him. the emigrant fleet had appeared over krim on the way to walden. before itappeared, hoddan's affairs had been prosperous enough. right after his previous visit, newshad come of the daring piratical raid which captured a ship off walden. this was the linerhoddan'd brought in to krim. all merchants and ship owners immediately insured all vesselsand goods in space transit at much higher valuations. the risk-insurance stocks boughton hoddan's account had multiplied in value. obeying his instructions, his lawyers hadsold them out and held a pleasing fortune in trust for hoddan.

then came the fleet over krim, with its letterthreatening planetary destruction if resistance was offered to single ships which would landand loot later on. it seemed that all commerce was at the mercy of space marauders. risk-insurancecompanies had undertaken to indemnify the owners of ships and freight in emptiness.now that an unprecedented pirate fleet ranged and doubtless ravaged the skyways, the insurancecompanies ought to go bankrupt. owners of stock in them dumped it at any price to getrid of it. in accordance with hoddan's instructions, though, his lawyers had faithfully if distastefullybought it in. to use up the funds available, they had to buy up not only all the stockof all the risk-insurance companies of krim, but all stock in all off-planet companiesowned by investors on krim.

then time passed, and ships in space arrivedunmolested in port. cargoes were delivered intact. insurers observed that the risk-insurancecompanies had not collapsed and could still pay off if necessary. they continued theirinsurance. risk companies appeared financially sound once more. they had more business thanever, and no more claims than usual. suddenly their stocks went up—or rather, what peoplewere willing to pay for them went up, because hoddan had forbidden the sale of any stockafter the pirate fleet appeared. now he asked hopefully if he could reimbursethe owners of the ship he'd captured off walden. he could. could he pay them even the profitthey'd have made between the loss of their ship and the arrival of a replacement? hecould. could he pay off the shippers of rigellian

furs and jewelry from the cetis stars, andthe owners of the bulk melacynth that had brought so good a price on krim? he could.in fact, he had. the insurance companies he now owned lock, stock, and barrel had alreadypaid the claims on the ship and its cargo, and it would be rather officious to add tothat reimbursement. hoddan was abruptly appalled. he insistedon a bonus being paid, regardless, which his lawyers had some trouble finding a legal fictionto fit. then he brooded over his position. he wasn't a business man. he hadn't expectedto make out so well. he'd thought to have to labor for years, perhaps, to make goodthe injury he'd done the ship owners and merchants in order to help the emigrants from colin.but it was all done, and here he was with

a fortune and the framework of a burgeoningfinancial empire. he didn't like it. gloomily, he explained matters to his attorneys.they pointed out that he had a duty, an obligation, from the nature of his unexpected success.if he let things go, now, the currently thriving business of risk insurance would return toits former unimportance. his companies had taken on extra help. more bookkeepers andaccountants worked for him this week than last. more mail clerks, secretaries, janitorsand scrubwomen. even more vice presidents! he would administer a serious blow to theeconomy of krim if he caused a slackening of employment by letting his companies goto pot. a slackening of employment would cause a drop in retail trade, an increase in inventories,a depression in industry....

hoddan thought gloomily of his grandfather.he'd written to the old gentleman and the emigrant fleet would have delivered the letter.he couldn't disappoint his grandfather! he morbidly accepted his attorneys' advice,and they arranged immediately to take over the forty-first as well as the forty-secondand-third floors of the building their offices were in. commerce would march on. and hoddan headed for darth. he had to returnhis crew, and there was something else. several something elses. he arrived in that solar-systemand put his yacht in a search-orbit, listening for the call-signal the spaceboat should givefor him to home on. he found it, deep within the gravity-field of darth. he maneuveredto come alongside, and there was blinding

light everywhere. alarms rang. lights wentout. instruments registered impossibilities, the rockets fired crazily, and the whole shipreeled. then a voice roared out of the communicator: "stand and deliver! surrender and y'll beallowed to go to ground. but if y'even hesitate i'll hull ye and heave ye out to space withouta spacesuit!" hoddan winced. stray sparks had flown abouteverywhere inside the space yacht. a ball lightning bolt, even of only warning size,makes things uncomfortable when it strikes. hoddan's fingers tingled as if they'd beenasleep. he threw on the transmitter switch and said annoyedly: "hello, grandfather. this is bron. have youbeen waiting for me long?"

he heard his grandfather swear disgustedly.not long later, a badly battered, blackened, scuffed old spacecraft came rolling up onrocket-impulse and stopped with a billowing of rocket fumes. hoddan threw a switch andused the landing grid field he'd used on walden in another fashion. the ships came togetherwith fine precision, lifeboat-tube to lifeboat-tube. he heard his grandfather swear in amazement. "that's a little trick i worked out, grandfather,"said hoddan into the transmitter. "come aboard. i'll pass it on." his grandfather presently appeared, scowlingand suspicious. his eyes shrewdly examined everything, including the loot tucked in everyavailable space. he snorted.

"all honestly come by," said hoddan morbidly."it seems i've got a license to steal. i'm not sure what to do with it." his grandfather stared at a placard on thewall. it said archly: "remember! a lady is present!" nedda had put it up. "hm-m-m!" said his grandfather. "what's awoman doing on a pirate ship? that's what your letter talked about!" "they get on," said hoddan, wincing, "likemice. you've had mice on a ship, haven't you? come in the control room and i'll explain." he did explain, up to the point where hisarrangements to pay back for a ship and cargo

he'd given away turned into a runaway success,and now he was responsible for the employment of innumerable bookkeepers and clerks andsuch in the insurance companies he'd come to own. there was also the fact that as theemigrant fleet went on, some fifty more planets in all would require the attention of pirateships from time to time, or there would be disillusionment and injury to the economicsystem. "organization," said his grandfather, "doeswonders for a tender conscience like you've got. what else?" hoddan explained the matter of his darthiancrew. don loris might affect to consider them disgraced because they hadn't cut his throat.hoddan had to take care of the matter. and

there was nedda.... fani came into the storysomehow, too. hoddan's grandfather grunted, at the end. "we'll go down and talk to this don loris,"he said pugnaciously. "i've dealt with his kind before. while we're down, your cousinoliver'll take a look at this new grid-field job. we'll put it on my ship. hm-m-m—howabout the time down below? never land long after daybreak. early in the morning, peopleain't at their best." hoddan looked at darth, rotating deliberatelybelow him. "it's not too late, sir," he said. "will youfollow me down?" his grandfather nodded briskly, took anothercomprehensive look at the loot from walden,

and crawled back through the tube to his ownship. so it was not too long after dawn, in thattime-zone, when a sentry on the battlements of don loris' castle felt a shadow over hishead. he jumped a foot and stared upward. then his hair stood up on end and almost threwhis steel helmet off. he stared, unable to move a muscle. there was a ship above him. it was not a largeship, but he could not judge of such matters. it was not supported by rockets. it shouldhave been falling horribly to smash him under its weight. it wasn't. instead, it floatedon with very fine precision, like a ship being landed by grid, and settled delicately tothe ground some fifty yards from the base

of the castle wall. immediately thereafter there was a mutteringroar. it grew to a howl—a bellow; it became thunder. it increased from that to a noiseso stupendous that it ceased altogether to be heard, and was only felt as a deep-tonedbattering at one's chest. when it ended there was a second ship resting in the middle ofa very large scorched place close by the first. neither of these ships was a spaceboat. thesilently landed vessel, which was the smaller of the two, was several times the sizes ofthe only spacecraft ever seen on darth outside the spaceport. its design was somehow suggestiveof a yacht. the other, larger, ship was blunt and soiled and space-worn, with patches onits plating here and there.

a landing ramp dropped down from the batteredcraft. it neatly spanned the scorched and still-smoking patch of soil. a port opened.men came out, following a jaunty small figure with belligerent gray whiskers. they draggedan enigmatic object behind them. hoddan came out of the yacht. his grandfathersaid waspishly: "this the castle?" he waved at the massive pile of cut gray stone,with walls twenty feet thick and sixty high. "yes, sir," said hoddan. "hm-m-m," snorted his grandfather. "looksflimsy to me!" he waved his hand again. "you remember your cousins."

familiar, matter-of-fact nods came from themen of the battered ship. hoddan hadn't seen any of them for years, but they were his kin.they wore commonplace, workaday garments, but carried weapons slung negligently overtheir shoulders. they dragged the cryptic object behind them without particular formationor apparent discipline, but somehow they looked capable. hoddan and his grandfather strolled to thecastle gate, their companions a little to their rear. they came to the gate. nothinghappened. nobody challenged. there was the feel of peevish refusal to associate withpersons who landed in spaceships. "shall we hail?" asked hoddan.

"nah!" snorted his grandfather. "i know hiskind! make him make the advances." he waved to his descendents. "open it up." somebody casually pulled back a cover andreached in and threw switches. "found a power broadcast unit," grunted hoddan'sgrandfather, "on a ship we took. hooked it to the ship's space-drive. when y'can't usethe space-drive, you still got power. your cousin oliver whipped this thing up to useit." the enigmatic object made a spiteful noise.the castle gate shuddered and fell halfway from its hinges. the thing made a second noise.stones splintered and began to collapse. hoddan admired. three more unpleasing but not violentlyloud sounds. half the wall on either side

of the gate was rubble, collapsing partlyinside and partly outside the castle's proper boundary. figures began to wave hysterically from thebattlements. hoddan's grandfather yawned slightly. "i always like to talk to people," he observed,"when they're worryin' about what i'm likely to do to them, instead of what maybe theycan do to me." figures appeared on the ground level. they'dcome out of a sally port to one side. they were even extravagantly cordial when hoddan'sgrandfather admitted that it might be convenient to talk over his business inside the castle,where there would be an easy-chair to sit in.

presently they sat beside the fireplace inthe great hall. don loris, jittering, shivered next to hoddan's grandfather. the lady faniappeared, icy-cold and defiant. she walked with frigid dignity to a place beside herfather. hoddan's grandfather regarded her with a wicked, estimating gaze. "not bad!" he said brightly. "not bad at all!"then he turned to hoddan. "those retainers coming?" "on the way," said hoddan. he was not happy.the lady fani had passed her eyes over him exactly as if he did not exist. there was a murmurous noise. the dozen spearmencame marching into the great hall. they carried

loot. it dripped on the floor and they blandlyignored such things as stray golden coins rolling off away from them. stay-at-home inhabitantsof the castle gazed at them in joyous wonderment. nedda came with them. the lady fani made avery slight, almost imperceptible movement. hoddan said desperately: "fani, i know you hate me, though i can'tguess why. but here's a thing that ... has to be taken care of! we made a raid on walden... that's where the loot came from ... and my men kidnaped this girl ... her name isnedda ... and brought her on the ship as a present to me ... because she'd admitted thatshe knew me! nedda's in an awful fix, fani! she's alone and friendless, and ... somebodyhas to take care of her! her father'll come

for her eventually, no doubt, but somebody'sgot to take care of her in the meantime, and i can't do it!" hoddan felt hysterical atthe bare idea. "i can't!" the lady fani looked at nedda. and nedda worethe brave look of a girl so determinedly sweet that nobody could possibly bear it. "i'm ... very sorry," said nedda bravely,"that i've been the cause of poor bron turning pirate and getting into such dreadful trouble.i cry over it every night before i go to sleep. he treated me as if i were his sister, andthe other men were so gentle and respectful that i ... i think it will break my heartwhen they are punished. when i think of them being executed with all that dreadful, hopelessformality—"

"on darth," said the lady fani practically,"we're not very formal about such things. just cutting somebody's throat is usuallyenough. but he treated you like a sister, did he? thal?" thal swallowed. he'd been beaming a momentbefore, with his arms full of silver plate, jewelry, laces, and other bits of booty fromthe town of ensfield. but now he said desperately: "yes, lady fani. but not the way i'd've treatedmy sister. my sisters, lady fani, bit me when they were little, slapped me when they werebigger, and scorned me when i grew up. i'm fond of 'em! but if one of my sisters'd everlectured me because i wasn't refined, or shook a finger at me because i wasn't gentlemanly—lady fani, i'd've strangled her!"

there was a certain gleam in the lady fani'seye as she said warmly to hoddan: "of course i'll take care of the poor thing!i'll let her sleep with my maids and i'm sure one of them can spare clothes for her to wear,and i'll take care of her until a space liner comes along and she can be shipped back toher family. and you can come to see her whenever you please, to make sure she's all right!" hoddan's eyes tended to grow wild. his grandfathercleared his throat loudly. hoddan said doggedly: "you, fani, asked each of my men if they'dfight for you. they said yes. you sent them to cut my throat. they didn't. but they'renot disgraced! i want that clear! they're good men! they're not disgraced for failingto assassinate me!"

"of course they aren't," conceded the ladyfani sweetly. "whoever heard of such a thing?" hoddan wiped his forehead. don loris openedhis mouth fretfully. hoddan's grandfather forestalled him. "you've heard about that big pirate fleetthat's been floating around these parts? eh? it's my grandson's. i run a squadron of itfor him. wonderful boy, my grandson! bloodthirsty crews on those ships, but they love that boy!" "very—" don loris caught his breath. "veryinteresting." "he likes your men," confided hoddan's grandfather."used them twice. says they make nice, well-behaved pirates. he's going to give them stun-pistolsand cannon like the one that smashed your

gate. only men on darth with guns like that!seize the spaceport and put in power broadcast, and make sure nobody else gets stun-weapons.run the country. your men'll love it. love that boy, too! follow him anywhere. loot." don loris quivered. it was horribly plausible.he'd had the scheme of the only stun-weapon-armed force on darth, himself. he knew his men tendedto revere hoddan because of the plunder his followers seemed always to acquire. don loriswas in a very, very uncomfortable situation. bored men from the battered spacecraft stoodabout his great hall. they were unimpressed. he knew that they, at least, were casuallysure that they could bring his castle down about his ears in minutes if they chose.

"but ... if my men—" don loris quavered."what about me?" "minor problem," said hoddan's grandfatherblandly. "the usual thing would be pfft! cut your throat." he rose. "decide that later,no doubt. yes, bron?" "i've brought back my men," growled hoddan,"and nedda's taken care of. we're through here." he headed abruptly for the great hall's farthestdoor. his grandfather followed him briskly, and the negligent, matter-of-fact armed menwho were mostly hoddan's first and second cousins came after them. outside the castle,hoddan said angrily: "why did you tell such a preposterous story,grandfather?"

"it's not preposterous," said his grandfather."sounds like fun, to me! you're tired now, bron. lots of responsibilities and such. takea rest. you and your cousin oliver get together and fix those new gadgets on my ship. i'lltake the other boys for a run over to this spaceport town. the boys need a run ashore,and there might be some loot. your grandmother's fond of homespun. i'll try to pick some upfor her." hoddan shrugged. his grandfather was a lawunto himself. hoddan saw his cousins bringing horses from the castle stables, and a verycasual group went riding away as if on a pleasure excursion. as a matter of fact, it was. thalguided them. for the rest of that morning and part of theafternoon hoddan and his cousin oliver worked

at the battered ship's lawlor drive. hoddanwas pleased with his cousin's respect for his device. he unfeignedly admired the cannonhis cousin had designed. presently they reminisced about their childhood. it was pleasant torenew family ties like this. the riders came back about sunset. there wereextra horses, with loads. there were cheerful shoutings. his grandfather came into hoddan'sship. "brought back some company," he said. "spacelinerlanded while we were there. friend of yours on it. congenial fellow, bron. thinks wellof you, too!" a large figure followed his grandfather in.a large figure with snow-white hair. the amiable and relaxed interstellar ambassador to walden.

"hard-gaited horses, hoddan," he said wryly."i want a chair and a drink. i traveled a good many light-years to see you, and it wasn'tnecessary after all. i've been talking to your grandfather." "glad to see you, sir," said hoddan reservedly. his cousin oliver brought glasses, and theambassador buried his nose in his and said in satisfaction: "a-a-ah! that's good! capable man, your grandfather.i watched him loot that town. beautifully professional job! he got some homespun sheetsfor your grandmother. but about you." hoddan sat down. his grandfather puffed andwas silent. his cousins effaced themselves.

the ambassador waved a hand. "i started here," he observed, "because itlooked to me like you were running wild. that spacefleet, now ... i know something of yourability. i thought you'd contrived some way to fake it. i knew there couldn't be sucha fleet. not really! that was a sound job you did with the emigrants, by the way. mostpraiseworthy! and the point was that if you ran hogwild with a faked fleet, sooner orlater the space patrol would have to cut you down to size. and you were doing much toogood work to be stopped!" hoddan blinked. "satisfaction," said the ambassador, "is wellenough. but satiety is death. walden was dying

on its feet. nobody could imagine a greatersatisfaction than curling up with a good tranquilizer! you've ended that! i left walden the day afteryour ensfield raid. young men were already trying to grow mustaches. the textile millswere making colored felt for garments. jewelers were turning out stun-gun pins for ornaments,darthian knives for brooches, and the song writers had eight new tunes on the air aboutpirate lovers, pirate queens, and dark ships that roam the lanes of night. three new vision-playseries were to start that same night with space-piracy as their theme, and one of themclaimed to be based on your life. better make them pay for that, hoddan! in short, waldenhad rediscovered the pleasure to be had by taking pains to make a fool of one's self.people who watched that raid on visionscreens

had thrills they'd never swap for tranquilizers!and the ones who actually mixed in with the pirate raiders— you deserve well of therepublic, hoddan!" hoddan said, "hm-m-m," because there was nothingelse to be said. "now, your grandfather and i have canvassedthe situation thoroughly! this good work must be continued. diplomatic service has beenworried all along the line. now we've something to work up. your grandfather will expand hisfacilities and snatch ships, land and loot, and keep piracy flying. your job is to carryon the insurance business. the ships that will be snatched will be your ships, of course.no interference with legitimate commerce. the landing-raids will be paid for by theinterplanetary piracy-risk insurance companies—you.

in time you'll probably have to get writersto do scripts for them, but not right away. you'll continue to get rich, but there's noharm in that so long as you re-introduce romance and adventure and derring-do to a galaxy headedfor decline. savages will not invent themselves if there are plenty of heroic characters—ofyour making!—to slap them down!" hoddan said painfully: "i like working on electronic gadgets. mycousin oliver and i have some things we want to work on together." his grandfather snorted. one of the cousinscame in from outside the yacht. thal followed him, glowing. he'd reported the looting ofthe spaceport town, and don loris had gone

into a tantrum of despair because nobody seemedable to make headway against these strangers. now he'd turned about and issued a belatedinvitation to hoddan and his grandfather and their guest the interstellar ambassador—ofwhom he'd learned from thal—to dinner at the castle. they could bring their own guards. hoddan would have refused, but the ambassadorand his grandfather were insistent. ultimately he found himself seated drearily at a longtable in a stone-walled room lighted by very smoky torches. don loris, jittering, displayeda sort of professional conversational charm. he was making an urgent effort to overcomethe bad effect of past actions by conversational brilliance. the lady fani sat quietly withjewels at her throat. she looked most often

at her plate. the talk of the oldsters becameprofound. they talked administration. they talked practical politics. they talked economics. the lady fani looked very bored as the talkwent on after the meal was over. don loris said brightly, to her: "my dear we must be tedious! young hoddanlooks uninterested, too. why don't you two walk on the battlements and talk about suchthings as persons your age find interesting?" hoddan rose, gloomily. the lady fani, witha sigh of polite resignation, rose to accompany him. the ambassador said suddenly: "hoddan! i forgot to tell you! they foundout what killed that man outside the power

station!" when hoddan showed no comprehension,the ambassador explained, "the man your friend derec thought was killed by deathrays. itdevelops that he'd gotten a terrific load on—drunk, you know—and climbed a treeto escape the pink, purple, and green duryas he thought were chasing him to gore him. heclimbed too high, a branch broke, and he fell and was killed. i'll take it up with the courtwhen i get back to walden. no reason to lock you up any more, you know. you might evensell the power board on using your receptor, now!" "thanks," said hoddan politely. he added,"don loris has that derec and a cop from walden here now. tell them that and they may go home."

he accompanied the lady fani to the battlements.the stars were very bright. they strolled. remembering his darthians, he felt very unpopular. "what was that the ambassador told you?" sheasked. he explained without zest. he added morbidlythat it didn't matter. he could go back to walden now, and if the ambassador was righthe could even accomplish things in electronics there. but he wasn't interested. it was oddthat he'd once thought such things would make him happy. "i thought," said the lady fani, in gentlemelancholy, "that i would be happier with you dead. you had made me very angry. no,no matter how! but i found it was not so."

hoddan fumbled for her meaning. it wasn'tquite an apology for trying to get him killed. but at least it was a disclaimer of futureintentions in that direction. "and speaking of happiness," she added ina different tone, "this nedda...." he shuddered, and she said: "i talked to her. so then isent for ghek. we're on perfectly good terms again, you know. i introduced him to nedda.she was vanilla ice cream with meringue and maple syrup on it. he loved it! she gazedat him with pretty sadness and told him how terrible it was of him to kidnap me. he saidhumbly that he'd never had her ennobling influence nor dreamed that she existed. and she lovedthat! they go together like strawberries and cream! i had to leave, or stop being a lady.i think i made a match."

then she said tranquilly: "but seriously, you ought to be perfectlyhappy. you've everything you ever said you wanted, except a delightful girl to marry." hoddan squirmed. "we're old friends," said fani kindly, "andyou did me a great favor once. i'll return it. i'll round up some really delightful girlsfor you to look over." "i'm leaving," said hoddan, alarmed. "the only thing is— i don't know what typeyou like. nedda isn't it." hoddan shuddered.

"nor i," said fani. "what type would you sayi was?" "delightful," said hoddan hoarsely. the lady fani stopped and looked up at him.she said approvingly: "i hoped that word would occur to you oneday. er ... what does a man usually do when he discovers a girl is delightful?" hoddan thought it over. he started. he puthis arms around her with singularly little skill. he kissed her, at first as if amazedat himself, and then with enthusiasm. there were scraping sounds on the stone nearby.footsteps. don loris appeared, gazing uncertainly about.

"fani!" he said plaintively. "hoddan? ourguests are going to the spaceships. i want to speak privately to hoddan." "yes?" said hoddan. don loris peered blindlyabout. he kissed fani again. "i've been thinking," said don loris fretfully."i've made some mistakes, my dear boy, and i've given you excellent reason to dislikeme, but at bottom i've always thought a great deal of you. and ... ah ... there seems tobe only one way in which i can properly express how much i admire you. ah— how would youlike to marry my daughter?" hoddan looked down at fani. she did not tryto move away. "what do you think of the idea, fani?" heasked. "how about marrying me tomorrow morning?"

"of course not!" said fani indignantly. "iwouldn't think of such a thing! i couldn't possibly get married before tomorrow afternoon!" the end