Grimes paused briefly in the room where Janine was still gossiping with Maya. As he entered he heard Maya ask, "And how do you deal with the problem of the uncontrollable adolescent?"
He said, "Excuse me, ladies. I've just received word that Drongo Kane is on his way here . . . ."
"Drongo Kane?" asked Janine, arching her silver brows.
"The captain of a ship called the Southerly Buster," Maya told her. "A most generous man."
"Goodie goodie," exclaimed her sister queen. She looked rather pointedly at Danzellan's gleaming clock on the wall, then at Grimes's watch that was strapped around her slim, brown wrist.
"Perhaps he'll give you an egg timer . . ." suggested Maggie Lazenby.
"What is that?" asked Janine.
"It's not important," said Grimes impatiently. "Excuse us, please."
He led the way out of the palace, to where his pinnace was grounded in the middle of the plaza, looking like a huge, stranded silver fish. He looked up at the clear sky. Yes—there, far to the southward, was a tiny speck, a dark dot against the blueness that expanded as he watched. Then he was aware that the two queens had followed him outside.
"Is that Drongo Kane?' asked Janine.
"I think it is," he replied.
"Then I must prepare a proper reception," she said and walked rapidly back to her palace. Maya stayed with Grimes.
She said, "Janine prides herself on doing things properly."
"If she were doing things properly," Grimes told her, "she would have a battery of ground to air missiles standing by."
"You must be joking!" she exclaimed, shocked.
"Have our own armament in readiness, sir?" asked the navigator.
"Mphm. I was joking, Mr. Pitcher. But it will do no harm to have the twenty millimeters cocked and ready."
Two women were building another fire in the brazier that had served Grimes for a beacon. One of them produced a large box of oversized matches from the pouch that she wore slung from her shoulder, lit the kindling. Almost immediately the column of gray smoke was climbing skyward.
Kane's pinnace was audible now as well as visible, the irregular beat of its inertial drive competing with the more rhythmic efforts of Janine's drummers, warming up behind the palace. It was coming in fast, and it seemed that it would overshoot the plaza. But Kane—presumably it was he at the controls—brought the craft to a spectacular, shuddering halt when it was almost directly over Seeker's pinnace, applying maximum reverse thrust. That would not, thought Grimes disapprovingly, do his engines any good—but he, himself, had often been guilty of similar showmanship.
Oddly enough no crowd had gathered—but no crowd had gathered to greet Grimes. There were only a few deliberately uninterested bystanders, and they were mainly children. On no other world had Grimes seen such a fanatical respect for privacy.
Drongo Kane was dropping down now—not fast, yet not with extreme caution. His vertical thrust made odd patterns in the dust as the pinnace descended, not unlike those made in an accumulation of iron filings by a magnetic field. When there was little more than the thickness of a coat of paint between his landing gear and the ground he checked his descent, then cut his drive.
The door in the side of the pinnace opened. Drongo Kane stood in the opening. He was rigged up in a uniform that was like the full dress of the Survey Service—with improvements. An elaborate gold cockade ornamented his cocked hat, and his sword belt was golden, as was the scabbard. A score of decorations blazed over the left breast of his frock coat. Grimes thought he recognized the Iron Cross of Waldegren, the Golden Wings of the Hallichek Hegemony. Anybody who was highly regarded by those two governments would be persona non grata in decent society.
Kane jumped lightly to the ground, seemingly unhampered by his finery. He extended a hand to help Sabrina from the pinnace. Jewels glittered on her smooth, golden skin, and a coronet ablaze with emeralds was set on her head. She was inclined to teeter a little in her unaccustomed, high-heeled sandals.
"Cor stone me Aunt Fanny up a gum tree!" whispered Maggie.
"Captain Kane is generous," murmured Maya.
"Mphm," grunted Grimes.
Inside the pinnace two of Kane's officers—and they were dressed only in their drab working uniforms—were setting up some sort of machine, an affair of polished brass, just within the doorway. Grimes stared at it in amazement and horror.
"Captain Kane," he shouted, "I forbid you to terrorize these people!"
Kane grinned cheerfully. "Keep your hair on, Commander! Nobody's goin' to terrorize anybody. Don't you recognize a salutin' cannon when you see one? Sabrina, here, has told me that this Queen Janine is a stickler for etiquette . . . . "Then his eyes widened as, to the rattle of drums, the procession emerged from around the corner of the palace. He licked his lips as he stared at the high-stepping girl with the Lode Cougar flag—that sash and those boots—especially the boots—did something for her. He muttered to himself, "And you can say that again!"
With a last ruffle of drums Janine and her entourage came to a halt. Kane drew himself to attention and saluted grandly. "Fire one!" snapped somebody inside the pinnace. The brass cannon boomed, making a noise disproportionate to its size. "Fire two!" Again there was the gout of orange flame, the billowing of dirty white smoke. "Fire three!"
At first it looked as though the spearmen, archers and riflemen would either turn and run—or loose their weapons off against the spacemen—but Janine snapped a sharp order and, drawing herself up proudly, stood her ground.
"Fire four!" Boom!
"Fire five!"
Janine was enjoying the show. So was Kane. Sabrina, at his side, winced every time the gun was fired, but tried to look as though this sort of thing was an everyday occurrence. Maya whispered urgently to Grimes, "This noise . . . can't you make him stop it?"
"Fire nine!" Boom!
"Fire ten!"
Janines bodyguard had recovered their composure now and were standing at stiff attention, and there was a certain envy evident in the expressions on the faces of the drummer girls—but the standard bearer spoiled the effect when the drifting fumes of the burning black powder sent her into a fit of sneezing.
"Fire sixteen!" Boom!
Surely not, thought Grimes dazedly. Surely not. A twenty-one gun salute for somebody who, even though she is called a queen, is no more than the mayor of a small town . . . .
"Fire twenty!" Boom!
"Fire twenty-one!" Boom!
"A lesson," remarked Maggie, "on how to win friends and influence people . . . ."
"He certainly influenced me!" said Grimes.
Kane, accompanied by Sabrina, marched to where Janine was standing. He saluted again. Janine nodded to him regally. The standard bearer, recovered from her sneezing fit, dipped her flag toward him. The spearmen and riflemen presented arms. Grimes watched all this a little enviously. He was sorry that Maya had not briefed him regarding Janine's love of ceremonial, as obviously Sabrina had briefed Kane. But it could be that Kane knew Sabrina far better than he, Grimes, knew Maya. There are more things to do in a shared bed than talking—but talking in bed is quite a common practice . . . .
"Shall I fire a burst from the twenty millimeters," asked Pitcher wistfully, "just to show that we can make a noise too?"
"No," Grimes said sternly.
"Sir," called Billard, "here comes another pinnace!"
Danzellan's arrival on the scene was anticlimactic. When he came in to a landing the queen, together with Kane, Sabrina and two of Southerly Buster's officers carrying a large chest of trade goods, had returned to her palace and was staying there.