Panacea
Universe Science Fiction – May 1954
(1954)*
Dean A. Grennell
illustrated by Lawrence

	Thaddeus Q. Pangbourne decided to let the natives of Venus have the benefit of his Peerless Patent Panacea; but a patent medicine made with Venusian ingredients might possibly have unexpected results. It did; in fact, it put a definite strain on the diplomatic relations of Earth and Venus.

	"And so I bring you, ladies and gentlemen, the priceless boon of everlasting health. I bring you freedom from disease—relief from all the plagues and megrims which harass a tortured mankind. I bring you Doctor Pangbourne's Peerless Patent Panacea!

	"This matchless blessing for the sufferer is the ultimate result of a lifetime of research. It combines hitherto unknown secrets of the physicians of Ancient Egypt with the newest medical discoveries of today and the day after tomorrow!

	"It is a life-giving tonic, containing a superabundance of all the vitamins and minerals needed for the glowing euphoria of perfect health. Take it regularly and the Grim Reaper will blunt his scythe upon you in vain!

	"Now the regular price of Doctor Pangbourne's Peerless Patent Panacea is a paltry five dollars for the giant family size—less than the cost of a single wreath of flowers to lay upon the bier of some poor soul who never learned of its incr-r-redible benefits! Five insignificant dollars for blessed relief from any disease or disorder—any one of them!

	"I want to introduce this unique compound to you. I want you to learn of its wonderful properties first-hand. To do this, I shall give—yes, I shall 'give'—a full, giant, family-size bottle to each person who offers me a single dollar in the next thirty seconds! My assistant will now pass among you ..."

	The few curious ones who had stopped to hear this harangue shuffled their feet and moved on, finding a sudden fascination in the carnival attraction next to the old bus. This exhibit featured Ophidia, The Snake-Girl ("She swallows a life snake before your very eyes!"

	Mrs. Pangbourne blew a vagrant lock of grey hair out of her eyes and watched their retreat without expression. Wearily, she turned back toward the bus with her arms full of bottles. She noted with mild interest that a young man had engaged Dr. Pangbourne in conversation. Apparently, though, he wasn't looking for everlasting health so she replaced her bottles on their rack and returned to her campstool and the sock she was knitting.

	Doctor Thaddeus Quincy Pangbourne (Ph. D.) had no delusions about the prospects of selling tonic to his visitor. It wasn't that the man—who had introduced himself as Esal Scurpp—didn't look as though he needed a tonic. Somehow he just didn't have the appearance of a man who worries about his health. That pasty complexion, now ...

	Pangbourne found his manner of approach a bit jarring, too.

	"Business is lousy in the patent-medicine line, ain't it, Doc?"

	The Doctor's goatee jutted indignantly.

	"I fail to see where that is any of your affair!" he replied with some asperity.

	"Ahh, come off it, Doc!" Scurpp was scornful. "I been watching your pitch for quite a while and you ain't sold three bottles all afternoon. Socialized medicine has plumb ruined your racket."

	Thaddeus groped for a crushing retort.

	"I still don't see why that should tear your heart out." His voice lent an odd note of mild savagery to the reply.

	"Oh, but it does, Doc—" There was no discouraging this fellow. "You see, I got the very thing you need to clean up with."

	"I'm afraid we're well supplied with brooms and brushes."

	"You just ain't reading me, Doc. What you need is to get to fresh territory. New worlds to conquer, that's what you need."

	Thaddeus was one of those who find it hard to be rude to people, no matter how they deserve rudeness.

	"Did you have such a world in mind?" he asked, reaching for sarcasm.

	"Sure," said the oily one. "Venus, that's where. I just came from there and it's a natural for a guy like you. The gooks are sick all the time and they'll buy anything."

	"It appears to me there's a slight hitch." Thad felt a vague stir of interest in spite of himself. "We are, at present, on Earth and the fare to take us to Venus is more than I care to think about."

	"I know the rates are steep. But did you ever think of 'having a spaceship all your own? Then you could pack up and hop from town to town. Why, you could even make a run back to Earth for a fresh batch of snake-oil."

	Pangbourne bristled. "Young man, I'll thank you to remember that it is not 'snake-oil' but, rather, a carefully compounded mixture of ..."

	"Yeah, yeah—I heard the spiel you were giving the suckers. Skip that—you're missing the main idea."

	"I'm afraid I can't even see the main idea! Where in Blue Tunket would a man like me get the price of a space-ship? I'm compelled to admit that I don't even have the price of enough fuel to take a liner from here to Venus."

	"That's the point, Doc—that's the point! I ain't talking about no liner. There's a lot of space-yachts and such .that the rich guys buy to go cutting around in and then sell for a song after a season or so. If you ain't got a brand-new 2078 job, you just don't rate in those circles."

	"And by some happy chance, you just happen to have such a vessel for sale at a mere pittance, I suppose?"

	"How on earth did you manage to guess that, Doc? You must be physic!" Scurpp must have read the expression somewhere, for he gave it just that pronunciation—physic.

	There was an elfin twinkle in Thad's eye as he turned and spoke over his shoulder.

	"The man wants to sell us a space-ship, Mother."

	Like many people who marry late in life and remain childless, it pleased them to use the titles of parenthood.

	Imperturbable was the word for Elvira Pangbourne. She didn't miss a stitch.

	"Yes, Pa," she said, "I heard; but where would we get the money?"

	Thaddeus turned back to Scurpp with an inquiring glance.

	"Maybe he could answer that."

	Esal got briskly down to business.

	"About how much do you think you'd be able to raise?"

	Thad thought bleakly about their tiny hoard laid away for a "rainy day." Stalling for time, he asked if he was supposed to buy a pig in a poke. Where was this so-wonderful space yacht?

	"I got a ground-car over here at the lot. I was hoping you'd like to come out and take a look at it."

	They rode out to the rocket port and Scurpp drove the little three-wheeled runabout up the ramp to the ship. Elvira sat in the rear seat, having laid her knitting aside with the air of one who expects to return shortly.

	The ship stood there, tall, slim and sleekly beautiful in the gathering dusk. This was no weary old freighter, with blast-pocked tubes and loose connections in the instrument panels. It was of recent vintage and superbly maintained. Thad ran his hand over the smooth fin and kicked the grounding cushions in what he hoped was a profound and judicious manner. It was the first time he'd ever seen a space-ship close up but he didn't want to betray his ignorance.

	"Beautiful, ain't she?" Scurpp volunteered proudly. "She sleeps four and a crew of two."

	"That's another thing that occurs to me," objected Thad. "Neither of us has any experience in piloting anything bigger than the old bus. And heaven knows, we can't afford to hire a crew to run it for us."

	By the way of answer, Scurpp led them up the telescoping ramp into a surprisingly roomy lounge. He handed Thad a thick book entitled "Pilot's. Manual for the 2075 Bergstrom Space-Rover" and indicated several books on Astrogation, Maintenance and Space Regulations.

	"Confidentially," he said, "they carry the crew along to do the dirty work—cooking, making beds and such. That's what the playboys get their biggest charge out of—making like a pilot."

	"You mean I could skim through this book and learn enough about running the thing to be able to get around?"

	Esal assured him that he could. He showed Thad how to look up a pre-plotted course in the Ephemeris and punch it into the automatic pilot for a pre-set time when the relays would be activated by a broadcast signal from the Government Observatory. He explained how it would hold to the course and compensate for minor variations by taking radio fixes as the voyage progressed. It even had HDA which he translated as "Hazard Detection and Avoidance". It could be set to give a signal and relinquish control at any previously determined altitude over the destination. By switching it off, manual control could be assumed at any time.

	"An eight-year-old," he stoutly maintained, "could take this job to Pluto and bring her back."

	Thad wondered what kind of parents would let their children go gadding off to the ends of the system on solo flights but he didn't choose to make an issue of it. Instead, he wondered aloud.

	"But what about fuel? Isn't that expensive?"

	"Not anymore. The drive on this ship uses the new synthetized fuels and the tanks hold enough for a dozen round trips." He peered at a gauge. "They're nearly full right now."

	Thad was impressed. He turned to Elvira, for such an important decision was not his alone to make.

	"Well, Mother?"

	"I still haven't heard the gentleman mention a price. It seems to me that he'd want a lot more than we could afford to give him." And then she added, wistfully, "But it would be nice to see another world while we can still see it together."

	"Well, old boy," Thad thought to himself, "here goes the ball-game!"

	"The very most we could possibly dig up would be about twelve hundred dollars." Thad expected anything but the man's ready agreement.

	"If it weren't for the fact that my poor old Mother is bad sick and I need the dough to rush to her bedside I'd laugh in your face. As it is, I'll take twelve C's and the old bus 'cause I ain't got time to look for a better offer. You're getting a steal, brother!"

	The Pangbournes expressed sympathy for the ailing lady and Thad insisted on giving the man a couple bottles of his remedy for Mrs. Scurpp to try, pointing out that you never could tell.

	It didn't seem long at all before the transaction was completed and 'Iliad and Elvira stood on the ramp and watched the venerable old bus wheeze down the road. Esal looked out of the driver's window and waved in farewell as the bus rounded a row of maintenance sheds and vanished.

	"Well, I surely hope his Mother gets better," Elvira said.

	They climbed up into the unfamiliar luxury of their new home and set to work putting the hastily-loaded things away. Thad stacked the cases of concentrate away in the luggage lockers. There was enough to make up several hundred bottles and he was glad he'd laid in a fresh supply only recently.

	When their gear had been stowed away Thad settled down on a reclining chair with a cigar from the Captain's locker and an arm-load of books.

	It was nearly mid-night when he looked up from his concentration to where Elvira sat, her tireless needles clicking rhythmically.

	"Well Mother," he said, calm assurance and no small amount of pride in his voice, "I think I can make her go."

	Elvira looked up. "Yes, Pa?"

	"I feel sure of it and I know of one way to find out. Right now."

	"But it's night, Pa. Why not wait until daylight?"

	"What difference does it make? It will be daylight soon after we take off and the automatic pilot doesn't need light to find its way around."

	Elvira objected mildly. It felt so nice to sit quietly enjoying the soft chair, the panelled walls, the pretty carpeting and the bright, but gentle lighting. Thad overcame her protests by pointing out that she would have plenty of time for that after they were underway. Finally she agreed and he managed to look up the settings and punch them in with time enough to catch the second quarter-hourly signal after the decision had been made.

	They relaxed on the deep hydraulic cushions of the bunks as the ship lifted skyward, its takeoff unexpectedly quiet in the thickly-insulated cabin. The acceleration of two gravities wasn't too bad lying down. Elvira even drifted off to sleep after a while. But before this, her voice had made a disquieting speculation.

	"Thaddeus, I can't help but wonder ..."

	"Yes, Mother?"

	"If the young man wanted to get home so quickly, why didn't he take this ship?"

	Thaddeus assured her that it was probably because of the difficulty of making point-to-point hops on a planet with a ship designed for longer trips. But he lay there for a long time after Elvira's faint, musical snores proclaimed her slumber.

	For the manual had stressed the maneuverability of this particular model for sight-seeing after arrival.

	Full of the gnawing self-doubts which follow the taking of an irrevocable step—and now it didn't seem that he had given it the consideration he should have—he finally drifted off to a fitful sleep. He was troubled by his unaccustomed weight which was a shade over three hundred pounds with the drive on it and it was hard to move. There was some kind of nonsensical dream about a smooth-talking young man whose hair dripped motor-oil, hawking used spacecraft from the back platform of the old bus ...

-

	They woke up when the drive cut back to its cruising rate of one-quarter earth-normal. Despite a few stiff joints from hours of double-weight they felt as if years had been lopped from their ages. Thad reminded his wife that the gravity of Venus would take about sixteen pounds of weight off of her feet and she was pleased and greatly impressed. Their doubts of a few hours before had evaporated like early morning fog and they made a gay adventure of exploring the ship.

	Elvira was delighted to find the freezer compartment stocked with foods they hadn't been able to afford in years—some, in fact, that they'd never even heard of.

	Thad was in favor of making an epicurean feast out of breakfast but Elvira pointed out that there was no telling how long the food might have to last them and how did they know things would be any better on Venus than they had been on Earth?

	After breakfast they went to look out of the view-port at the blazing glory of stars undimmed by air and haze. Elvira squeezed Thad's hand as he showed her the shimmering pearl that awaited them.

-

	They landed on Venus the third week out, dropping through the blinding white overcast with calm confidence in the all-seeing HDA to keep their course free of obstacles. Thad made a very creditable first landing—the lighter gravity helped somewhat. He felt a pleasant glow of. accomplishment as he pressed the button which opened the lock and lowered the ramp. Hand in hand, like a pair of children exploring a haunted house, the Pangbournes went down to set foot on Sol's second planet.

	The light was dazzling-bright and the air was hot, with a smell which was unfamiliar but not unpleasant. Around the clearing, the trees stretched up to incredible heights and undergrowth matted thickly about their trunks. Thad and Elvira were quite enchanted. , There was a cluster of native houses nearby, which was why they had chosen this clearing for their landing-place. The natives were coming out to meet them—evidently they didn't see many space-going vessels in this area.

	The Venusians clustered about their visitors like a group of curious children. The effect was spoiled a bit by the fact that there was scarcely a one of them who was less than seven feet tall.

	Thad, speaking just below a shout (on the theory that everybody understands English if it's loud), asked if there was anybody around who could talk with them.

	One of the crowd was pushed to the fore, where he announced that he (the Pangbournes supposed that "he" was the right pronoun, which later proved correct) could speak a fair sort of English.

	His name—as close as Thad could pronounce it—was Ivlek Rotan and he had worked for a colony of Terrans up the river at one time. His English was a bit rusty, but Thad didn't have too much trouble making himself understood.

	There wasn't much doubt that the Venusians would be a ready market for medicaments. Their skins were of a peculiar verdant shade, midway between aqua and bottle-green. There seemed to be some sort of skin-rash that was quite prevalent, for all of them had a number of sores on their faces, arms and legs. It looked like a sort of super acne. Thad made a mental note to find out the name for it and stress the beneficial properties of his remedy on this particular complaint.

	Which reminded him—his stocks of bottled remedy were running a bit low. He had only been mixing up small batches back home, what with the meager demand and all, and it looked like he'd be needing more of the stuff here. At least, he hoped he would be!

	So he got a five-gallon crock from the ship, and a jug of concentrate. As an afterthought, he added a bit of extra paraphernalia from their luggage. If the natives were going to watch him mix the remedy, he might as well put on a bit of a show for them.

	They trooped down to the river, still followed by what must have been almost the entire population of the village. Thad tested the water with his finger, found it hot and then withdrew hastily as a thing like an outsize barracuda came swooping up to investigate.

	So he used a longhandled dipper to ladle the greenish river water into the crock. When he had it nearly three-quarters full, he added about half a gallon of concentrate from the jug, made a few cabalistic gestures and started to stir it.

	With his free hand, he broke off a branch from a nearby shrub which bore several large blue berries. He plucked one off and offered it to a nearby child. The little one ate it with neither joy nor alarm. This provided some vital information to Thad—the berries were edible, or the older natives would have restrained the young one from eating them.

	Thad squeezed an enthusiastic amount of the berry-juice into the mixture and stirred well.

	Then he went back to the ship and rummaged through their gear until he located some old fireworks—a relic of some far-off fourth-of-July engagement—and burned them by the crock, pretending to fan the smoke across the solution.

	For good measure he threw in some seidlitz powders, which foamed up impressively. He deemed it good theater at this point to chant a few bars of "Bei Mir bist du Schoen" and make some more motions with the hands.

	He aimed to give his clientele their money's worth.

	Doctor Pangbourne's Peerless Patent Panacea, usually a clear sunny yellow, came out a rather turgid shade of off-blue, but Thad was satisfied. After all, he thought, it should look different—it had to cure different maladies in a totally different species of patient. He shook a bottle, and squinted judiciously at the contents.

	It certainly looked as if it ought to cure something!

	So he set to work with Ivlek doing the heavy lifting and hauling, to build a platform from a few boards and packing cases. As they worked, he coached his new assistant on the fine art of salesmanship.

	Ivlek was an apt pupil, as he proved when they had finished the stand and commenced the sales-pitch. Thad would peer at the crowd through the pair of sunglasses which sat astride his nose, incongruous above the white goatee, and expound the virtues of his elixir for a minute or two. Then he'd hand the bottle to Ivlek, who would shake it at the crowd in fine imitation of Thad's gestures and reiterate a literal translation in gobbling, clacking, Venish.

	The first invitation to purchase resulted in one of the maddest stampedes ever experienced. The stack of bottles melted away like beer at a German picnic.

	And before they were all gone, Ivlek had managed to find time to buy three bottles for himself.

-

	And so it went, through village after village. Ivlek had decided to hitch his wagon to the Pangbourne star and was teaching Thad a little basic Venish so that he could at least make iris greeting and a few telling points in the language of his audience. The Pangbourne's cup of joy was running over and they blessed the young man who had told them of this El Dorado.

	At least they did until one day about a week and a half after their arrival. They were just about ready to return to Earth for bottles and raw material and were trying to persuade Ivlek to come along for the trip. The ship's strong-box was overflowing with the little, sun-baked venucotta plaques that were the local medium of exchange. Business had been magnificent.

	Thad was just inquiring as to where they could convert their take into Terran legal tender when they heard the sound of an approaching ship and looked up to see the ugly, lethal lines of a blue-black Patrol ship appear through the overcast. It settled on blazing jets amid a cloud of dust and flying mud and a squad of men disembarked and came towards them, marching in smart formation.

	Their leader's greeting was .brief and very much to the point.

	"Pangbourne," he snapped, "you are under arrest!"

	Elvira gasped. Ivlek vented a whistle of surprise. Thad leaped to his feet, causing a number of guns to regard him with unwinking black muzzles.

	"Under arrest?" His blue eyes blazed and his voice was an outraged bellow. "What in Blue Tunket for?"

	"What for?" The Officer was aghast at such effrontery. "What not for? You've done just about everything there's a law against except commit murder and adultery and I wouldn't even be surprised if we turn up evidence of those!"

	He produced a sizable piece of paper and commenced to read from it.

	"Operating an interplanetary vessel without permit, license or registry. Making an interplanetary voyage without clearing customs at take-off or landing. Flagrant violation of the Pure Food and Drug Law, with Interplanetary amendments. Unlawful sale by misrepresentation to natives of a commodity not cleared by their government. Purchase of a space-going vessel without payment of transaction tax. Purchase and possession of stolen property, unlawful flight to evade capture ..."

	Thad sagged like a collapsing balloon. Somehow he couldn't bring himself to look at Elvira. He could feel the look in Ivlek's eyes, warm with shocked sorrow.

	"But I didn't know it had been stolen!"

	"Ignorance is no excuse and I hereby warn you that anything you may say will be taken down in writing and used against you

	The officer rattled off the time-worn formula in a ritualistic singsong, and snapped a pair of gleaming handcuffs on Thad's wrists. It took three Patrolmen to hold him when he saw them putting the cuffs on Elvira too. This was too much!

	But Elvira wasn't too disturbed. She managed to fetch along her knitting-bag.

	"How much did you pay for that ship?" the Officer asked as they were being led away.

	Thad looked back, craning his neck for a final view of the shining thing that had been his joy and undoing. Ivlek stood by, watching helplessly as a crew of Patrolmen prepared to take the ship back to their headquarters.

	"Twelve hundred dollars," muttered Thad. And he knew what the Officer was going to say.

	"Twelve hundred? Boy what a laugh that is! Do you know what those things cost?"

	"I'm afraid I do now." 

	They put the Pangbournes on hard benches in the Patrol ship and fastened their ankles to chains anchored to rings set in the wall.

	The savage acceleration at the takeoff strained painfully at the old couple's bones. Thad looked up once to find Elvira regarding him with tender compassion.

	"It's all right, Pa." Her voice was clear and firm over the drumming roar of the jets. "You meant well."

	Thad buried his face in his hands and wept, the chain on his handcuffs jingling faintly as the sobs shook his shoulders.

-

	Elvira was taken away when they got to the prison. She was led down the echoing corridor, a matron on each side and her knitting-bag in her manacled hands. To Thad, each receding foot-fall was a dagger twisted in his heart. He wished that he was five years dead and in the grave that all this would have never happened.

	The gray day stretched into a gray week. The air in the cell was hot and humid and foul. Thad sank deeper into apathy. Instead of looking fifteen years younger than his actual sixty-five, he looked a very decrepit ninety.

	A faint spark of the old Thad Pangbourne came flickering to the surface when they brought the greasy-haired Scurpp, heavily chained, to look in the cell door and identify him for the record.,

	Thad raged and tore at the bars.

	If he could have laid his hands on the creature, he'd have rent him limb from limb. He went so far as to say so with vivid description of gory details and choice bits of character analysis picked up in years with the carnival.

	"Ahhh—shut up, you old basset! I told you it was a steal, didn't I?"

	Thad subsided as Scurpp was led away and soon he was back on the bunk, staring dully at the sweating wall, his mind millions of miles away on a happy planet where the skies were blue (sometimes, at least) and the living was precarious but honest (well—reasonably honest).

	At length his reverie was broken by the hollow sound of footsteps coming down the corridor, accompanied by a faint jingling noise. It was a turnkey and a pair of guards. They halted outside his door.

	"Pangbourne?"

	"Yes?"

	"Someone to see you in the Warden's office."

	The DA, thought Thad, or maybe a cheap shyster who makes an odd buck taking cases where the court assigns a defense attorney.

	He didn't expect to see ...

	"Ivlek! Why you old son of a gun!"

	Ivlek was standing and he seemed a bit embarrassed by Thad's greeting. Thad's eyes turned to

	Ivlek's companion and he saw why everybody else was standing too.

	He was a Venusian of imposing proportions and awe-inspiring appearance. More than a foot taller than Ivlek, he had an air of leonine dignity hard to visualize on a head shaped like a football. He was dressed in a uniform of glowing colors which flashed and changed hues as he moved. He turned, inquiringly, to Ivlek.

	"This is the man?"

	"Yes, excellency," replied Ivlek, who turned to Thad and announced simply, "His Ultimate Supremacy, Igirf Eriad the Twelfth, Emperor of All Venus."

	Ivlek walked over to Thad and removed the jerkin-like garment which covered the upper half of his body.

	"I have taken your medicine regularly, Doctor Pangbourne, and I just want you to look at my skin."

	He turned around slowly. Thad gulped and choked a bit. When Ivlek was facing him again, he could hardly meet the Venusian's gaze.

	The bluish-green skin was pebbled solidly with a covering of the sores, almost edge-to-edge.

	Thad was surprised to find that he could feel even worse than he had before. He hadn't thought it possible.

	"Iv, old fellow, I'm sorry. You don't know how sorry I am!"

	"You're sorry? Why should Doctor Pangbourne be sorry?"

	"Your eci-sebuc, Ivlek—your little bumps—you've got more of them than you had before."

	"That's right, Doctor. And I never felt better in my life!"

	"Never felt better? How can that be?"

	"I thought I explained that to you, Doctor. Those eci-sebuc are how we keep cool—we can't perspire like an earth-man, or pant like one of your dogs, so we lose heat through those—as you call them—'little bumps'."

	To Thad, the room seemed to whirl slightly. He had a momentary mad impulse to fly out through the open window, since he was probably dreaming anyway. He turned to see the Emperor coming toward him.

	Eriad put his hands on Thad's shoulders and looked down into his eyes.

	"In the name of my people, Doctor Pangbourne, I want to thank you!"

	He turned to the Warden who stood, pop-eyed with amazement, against the wall.

	"How can I bring about Doctor Pangbourne's release?"

	"His re-re-release?" The Warden stammered, temporarily at a loss for words. "Why—that is—that would be most difficult, your excellency. Very difficult indeed. He's been caught red-handed with a stolen ship—that's grand larceny on a pretty grand scale, you know—heh-heh—and then there's a host of other charges ..."

	"But nothing, we can't fix, eh Warden? The deep-set magenta eyes twinkled. "You see, there isn't any more of Doctor Pangbourne's Peerless Patent Panacea left and we need him to mix us some more. The eci-sebucs start to thin out as soon as we stop taking it. Really, I must ask that you release him to my custody!"

	"Impossible, I'm afraid, your Excellency—I'd like to, of course, but I just don't have the power!"

	The Emperor's face took on a sterner look.

	"Surely I don't have to remind you that there is a treaty between our governments coming up for ratification? I understand that your Ambassador is more than a little worried over whether I will agree to some of the provisions or not.

	"Now I hate to use coercion, but I feel I should point out that I would enter into negotiations with a much more favorable attitude if my friend, here, were given a free and unconditional pardon."

	The Warden gagged slightly, but one of the other Terran officials whispered urgently in his ear. He swallowed manfully and spoke, with a venomous side-glance at Thad.

	"I am informed that it can be arranged, your Excellency."

	"I assume, of course, that the pardon will include the good Doctor's wife?"

	The Warden made a suffering noise, but a signal from the other man caught his eye.

	"Yes—yes, of course, your Excellency!"

	"And while we're at it," continued the Emperor thoughtfully, "I think that the Earth Government ought to award him the clear and perpetual title to the ship he arrived in, as well as a life-time license to operate it as he sees fit, without hindrance. That should help, in some small measure, to compensate him for his mental anguish."

	The Warden agreed mechanically. He knew when he was beaten, but it was plainly sticking in. his craw.

	Ivlek shrugged his jacket back on and addressed Thad.

	"Everything's all right now, Doctor Pangbourne. Let's go surprise Mrs. Doctor Pangbourne with the good news."

	"Nothing surprises Elvira," said Thaddeus Q. Pangbourne, as he bowed to Eriad and hastened out the door, "but let's go and tell her, by all means!"

The End