Eric Frank Russell
THE SPACE WILLIES



CAST OF CHARACTERS

John Leeming
His life depended on his proving a lie.

Mayor Snorkum 
When it came to "lapping a pie," the mayor couldn't
be beaten.

Major Klavith
He had a habit of taking fact for fiction - and fiction
for fact

Commodore Keen
There was nothing more important to this commander
than a properly zipped zipper!

Eustace Phenackertiban
His intelligence was such that he was commonly known as "Brain 
Child"

Colonel Farmer
He sometimes mistook the scout-pilot barracks for a
day nursery.



I


HE KNEW he'd stuck his neck out and it was too late to with-
draw. It had been the same since early childhood, when he'd 
accepted dares and been sorry immediately afterward. They
say that one learns from experience; if that were true, the 
human race would now be devoid of folly. He'd learned 
plenty in his time, and forgotten most of it within a week.
So yet again he'd wangled himself into a predicament and
undoubtedly would be left to wangle himself out of it as best
he could.
Once more he knocked at the door, a little harder but not 
imperatively. Behind the panels a chair scraped and a harsh 
voice responded with obvious impatience: 
"Come in!"
Marching inside, he stood at attention before the desk, 
head erect, thumbs in line with the seams of the pants, feet
at an angle of forty-five degrees. A robot, he thought, just
a damned robot.
Fleet Admiral Markham surveyed him from beneath bushy 
brows, his cold gaze slowly rising from feet to head then de- 
scending from head to feet.
"Who are you?"
"Scout-Pilot John Leeming, sir."
"Oh, yes." Markham maintained the stare then suddenly
barked, "Button your fly."
Leeming jerked and showed embarrassment. "I can't, sir.
It has a defective zipper."
"Then why haven't you visited the tailor? Does your com- 
manding officer approve of his men appearing before me 
sloppily dressed? I doubt it! What the devil do you mean by
it?"
"With all due respect, sir, I don't see that it matters. Dur-
ing a battle a man doesn't care what happens to his pants so 
long as he survives intact."
"I agree," said Markham.  "But what worries me is the
question of how much other and more important material 
may prove to be substandard. If civilian contractors fail on 
little things like zippers, they'll certainly fail on big ones. 
Such failures can cost lives."
"Yes, sir," said Leeming, wondering what the other was
getting at. 
"A new and untried ship, for instance," Markham went
on. "If it operates as planned, well and good. If it doesn't
. . ." He let the sentence peter out, thought awhile, con-
tinued, "We asked for volunteers for special long-range re- 
connaissance patrols. You were the first to hand in your
name. I want to know why."
"If the job has to be done, somebody must do it," Leeming 
answered evasively.
"I am fully aware of the fact. But I want to know exactly 
why you volunteered." He waited a bit, urged, "Come on, 
speak up! I won't penalize a risk-taker for giving his rea- 
sons."
Thus encouraged, Leeming said, "I like action. I like work- 
ing on my own. I don't like the time-wasting discipline they 
go in for around the base. I want to get on with the work for 
which I'm suited, and that's all there is to it."
Markham nodded understandingly. "So do most of us. Do you 
think I'm not frustrated sitting behind a desk while a 
major war is being fought?" Without waiting for a response 
he added, "I've no time for a man who volunteers because 
he's been crossed in love or anything like that. I want a com- 
petent pilot who is an individualist affiicted with the fidgets."
"Yes, sir."
"You seem to fit the part all right. Your technical record is 
first-class. Your disciplinary record stinks to high heaven." He 
eyed his listener blank-faced. "Two charges of refusing to 
obey a lawful order. Four for insolence and insubordination. 
One for parading with your cap on back-to-front. What on 
Earth made you do that?"
"I had a bad attack of what-the-hell, sir," explained Leem- 
ing.
"Did you? Well, it's obvious that you're a confounded
nuisance. The space-base would be better off without you."
"Yes, sir."
"As you know, we and a few allies are fighting a big com-
bine led by the Lathians. The size of the opposition doesn't 
worry us. What we lack in numbers we more than make up
for in competence and efficiency. Our war-potential is great 
and rapidly growing greater. We'll skin the Lathians alive
before we're through." 
Leeming offered no comment, having become tired of
"yessing."
"We've one serious weakness," Markham informed. "We 
lack adequate information about the enemy's cosmic hinter- 
land. We know how wide the Combine spreads but not how 
deep into the starfield it goes. It's true that the enemy is no 
wiser with regard to us, but that's his worry."
Again Leeming made no remark.
"Ordinary warships haven't flight-duration sufficiently pro- 
longed to dig deep behind the Combine's spatial front. That 
difficulty will be overcome when we capture one or more of 
their outpost worlds with repair and refueling facilities. 
However, we can't afford to wait until then. Our Intelli- 
gence Service wants some essential data just as soon as it 
can be got. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good! We have developed a new kind of superfast scout- 
ship. I can't tell you how it functions except that it does 
not use the normal cesium-ion form of propulsion. Its type 
of power unit is a top secret. For that reason it must not fall 
into the enemy's hands. As a last resort the pilot must destroy 
it, even if it means destroying himself, too."
"Completely wrecking a ship, even a small one, is much more 
difficult than it seems."
"Not this ship," Markham retorted. "She carries an effective 
charge in her engine room. The pilot need only press a button
to scatter the power units piecemeal over a wide area."
"I see."
"That charge is the sole explosive aboard, The ship carries 
no armament of any sort. It's a stripped-down vessel with
everything sacrificed for the sake of speed, and its only de-
fense is to scoot good and fast. That, I assure you, it can do.
Nothing in the galaxy can catch it, providing it's squirting
from all twenty propulsors." 
"Sounds good to me, sir," approved Leeming, licking his 
lips. 
"It is good. It's got to be good. The unanswered question 
is that of whether it's good enough to take the beating of a 
long, long trip. The tubes are the weakest part of any space- 
ship. Sooner or later they burn out. That's what bothers me. 
The tubes on this ship have very special linings. In theory 
they should last for months. In practice they might not. You 
know what that means?"
"No repairs and no replacements in enemy territory - no 
means of getting back," Leeming offered.
"Correct. And the vessel would have to be destroyed. From 
that moment the pilot, if still surviving, has isolated himself 
somewhere within the mists of Creation. His chances of see- 
ing humankind again are remote enough to verge upon the 
impossible."
"There could be worse situations. I'd rather be alive some 
place else than stone-dead here. While there's life there's 
hope."
"You still wish to go through with this?"
"Sure thing, sir."
"Then upon your own head be it," said Markham with 
grim humor. "Go along the corridor, seventh door on the 
right, and report to Colonel Farmer. Tell him I sent you."
"Yes, sir."
"And before you go, try that damned zipper again." 
Obediently, Leeming tried it. The thing slid all the way as
smoothly as if oiled. He stared at the other with a mixture
of astonishment and injured innocence.
"I started in the ranks and I haven't forgotten it," said 
Markham, pointedly. "You can't fool me."
Colonel Farmer, of Military Intelligence, was a beefy, 
florid-faced character who looked slightly dumb but had a
sharp mind. He was examining a huge star-map hung upon one 
wall when Leeming walked in. Farmer swung around as 
if expecting to be stabbed in the back.
"Haven't you been taught to knock before you enter?" 
"Yes, sir."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I forgot, sir. My mind was occupied with the interview 
I've just had with Fleet Admiral Markham."
"Did he send you to me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Oh, so you're the long-range reconnaissance pilot, eh? I 
don't suppose Commodore Keen will be sorry to see you go. 
You've been somewhat of a thorn in his side, haven't you?"
"It would seem that way, sir. But I joined the forces to 
help win a war and for no other purpose. I am not a juve- 
nile delinquent called up for reformation by the commodore 
or by anyone else."
"He'd disagree with you there. He's a stickler for disci- 
pline." Farmer let go a chuckle at some secret joke, added, 
"Keen by name and keen by nature." He contemplated the 
other a short while, went on more soberly, "You've picked 
yourself a tough job."
"That doesn't worry me," Leeming said flatly.
"You might never come back."
"Makes little difference. Eventually we all take a ride 
from which we never come back."
"Well, you needn't mention it with such ghoulish satisfac- 
tion," Farmer complained. "Are you married?"
"No, sir. Whenever I get the urge, I just lie down quietly 
until the feeling passes off."
Farmer eyed the ceiling and said, "God!"
"What did you expect?" asked Leeming, displaying a cer- 
tain aggressiveness. "A scout-pilot operates single-handed; he 
has to learn to dispense with a lot of things, especially com- 
panionship. It's surprising how much a man can do without 
if he really tries."
"I'm sure," soothed Farmer. He gestured toward the star- 
map. "On that the nearest points of light are arrayed across
the enemy's front. The mist of stars behind them are un-
known territory. The Combine may be far weaker than we 
think because its front is wafer-thin. Or it may be more pow- 
erful because its authority stretches far to the rear. The only 
way to find out exactly what we're up against is to effect a 
deep penetration through the enemy's spatial lines."
Leeming said nothing. 
"We propose to send a special scout-ship through this
area where occupied worlds lie far apart; the Combine's 
defenses are somewhat scattered here, and their detector 
devices are relatively sparse." Farmer put his finger on a dark 
patch on the map. "With the speed your vessel possesses 
the enemy will have hardly enough time to identify you as 
hostile before they lose trace of you. We have every reason
to believe that you'll be able to slip through into their rear 
without trouble."
"I hope so," contributed Leeming, seeing that a response 
was expected.
"The only danger point is here." Shifting his finger an inch, 
Farmer placed it on a bright star. "A Lathian-held solar sys- 
tem containing at least four large space-navy stations. If 
those fleets happen to be zooming around the bolt-hole, they 
might intercept you more by accident than good judgment.
So you'll be accompanied that far by a strong escort."
"That's nice."
"If the escort should become involved in a fight, you will 
not attempt to take part. Instead you will take full advantage 
of the diversion to race out of range and dive through the 
Combine's front. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"After you get through you must use your initiative. Bear 
in mind that we don't want to know how far back there are 
worlds holding intelligent life - you would never reach the 
end of those even if you continued to the crack of doom. We 
want to know only how far back there are such worlds in reg- 
ular communication with various members of the Combine. 
Whenever you come across an organized planet playing ball
with the Combine, you will at once transmit all the details 
you can offer."
"I will."
"As soon as you are satisfied that you have gained the 
measure of the enemy's depth, you will return as quickly as 
possible. You must get the ship back here if it can be done. 
If for any reason you cannot return, the ship must be con- 
verted into scrap. No abandoning it in free space, no dump- 
ing it into an ocean or anything like that. The ship must be 
destroyed. Markham has emphasized this, hasn't he?"
"Yes, sir." 
"All right. We're giving you forty-eight hours in which to 
clear up your personal affairs. After that, you will report to 
Number Ten Spaceport." Farmer held out a hand. "I wish 
you all the luck you can get."
"Thinking I'11 need it?" Leeming grinned and went on, 
"You're laying very heavy odds against ever seeing me again. 
It's written across your face. I'll be back - want to bet on it?"
"No," said Farmer. "I never gamble because I'm a bad 
loser. But if and when you do return, I'll tuck you into bed 
with my own two hands."
"That's a promise," warned Leeming.

The take-off came at one hour after sunset. There was a 
cloudless sky, velvet black and spangled with stars. Strange 
to think that far, far out there, concealed by sheer distance, 
were countless populated worlds with Combine warships 
parading warily between some of them, while the allied fleets 
of Terrans, Sirians, Rigellians and others were on the prowl 
across an enormous front.
Below, long chains of arc-lights dithered as a gentle breeze 
swept across the spaceport. Beyond the safety barriers that 
defined the blast-area, a group of people were waiting to 
witness the ascent. If the ship toppled instead of going up,
thought Leeming wryly, the whole lot of them would race for
sanctuary with burning backsides.
A voice came out of the tiny loud-speaker set in the cabin 
wall. "Warmup, pilot." 
He pressed a button. Something went whump; then the 
ship groaned and shuddered, and a great circular cloud of 
dusty vapor rolled across the concrete, concealing the safety 
barriers. The low groaning and trembling continued while 
he sat in silence, his full attention upon the instrument bank. 
The needles of twenty meters crawled to the right, quivered 
awhile, became still. That meant steady and equal pressure 
in the twenty stern tubes.
"Everything all right, pilot?" 
"Yes."
"Take off at will." A pause, followed by, "Lots of luck!" 
"Thanks!"
He let the tubes blow for another half minute before
gradually moving the tiny boost-lever toward him. The shud- 
dering increased; the groan raised its pitch until it became 
a howl; the cabin windows misted over and the sky was
obscured.
For a nerve-wracking second the vessel rocked on its tail- 
fins. Then it began to creep upward, a foot, a yard, ten yards. 
The howl was now a shriek. The chronically slow rate of rise 
suddenly changed as something seemed to give the vessel a 
hearty shove in the rear. Up it went, a hundred feet, a thou- 
sand, ten thousand. Through the clouds and into the deep of 
the night. The cabin windows were clear, the sky was full of 
stars and the moon looked huge.
The loud-speaker said in faint, squeaky tones, "Nice work, 
pilot."
"All my work is nice," retorted Leeming. "See you in the 
asylum."
There was no answer to that. They knew that he'd become 
afflicted with an exaggerated sense of freedom referred to as 
take-off intoxication. Most pilots suffered from it as soon as a 
planet lay behind their tail and only the stars could be seen 
ahead. The symptoms consisted of sardonic comments and abuse 
raining down from the sky.
"Go get a haircut," bawled Leeming into his microphone. 
"And haven't you been taught how to salute? Baloney baf- 
fles brains!"
They didn't answer that, either.
But down in the spaceport control-tower the duty officer 
pulled a face and said to Montecelli, "You know, I think that 
Einstein never worked out the whole of it."
"What do you mean?"
"I have a theory that as a man approaches the velocity of 
light, his inhibitions shrink to zero."
"You may have something there," Montecelli conceded. 
"Pork and beans, pork and beans, Holy God, pork and
beans," squawked the control-tower speaker with swiftly 
fading strength. "Get undressed because I want to test your 
eyes. Now inhale. Keen by name and keen by-"
The duty officer switched it off.


II


HE PICKED up the escort in the Sirian sector, the first en- 
counter being made when he was fast asleep. Activated by a 
challenging signal on a preset frequency, the alarm sounded 
just above his ear and caused him to dive out of the bunk 
while no more than half awake. For a moment he gazed 
stupidly around while the ship vibrated and the autopilot 
went tick-tick.
"Zern kaid-whit?" rasped the loud-speaker. "Zern kaid-
whit?" 
That was code and meant, "Identify yourself - friend or 
foe?"
Taking the pilot's seat, he turned a key that caused his 
transmitter to squirt forth a short, ultra-rapid series of num- 
bers. Then he rubbed his eyes and looked into the forward 
starfield. Apart from the majestic haze of suns shining in the 
dark, there was nothing to be seen with the naked eye;
So he switched on his thermosensitive detector-screens and 
was rewarded with a line of brilliant dots paralleling his 
course to starboard, while a second group, in arrow formation, 
was about to cut across far ahead of his nose. He was not 
seeing the ships, of course, but only the visible evidence of 
their white-hot propulsion tubes and flaming tails.
"Keefa!" said the loud-speaker, meaning, "All correct!" 
Crawling back into the bunk, Leeming hauled a blanket
over his face, closed his eyes and left the autopilot to carry 
on. After ten minutes his mind began to drift into a pleasant, 
soothing dream about sleeping in free space with nobody to 
bother him.
Dropping its code-talk, the loud-speaker yelped in plain 
language, "You deaf? Cut speed before we lose you!"
Leeming clambered angrily from the bunk, sat at the con- 
trols, adjusted them slowly. He watched his meters until 
he thought their needles had dropped far enough to make the 
others happy. Then he returned to bed and hid himself un-
der the blanket. 
It seemed to him that he was swinging in a celestial ham- 
mock and enjoying a wonderful idleness when the loud- 
speaker roared, "Cut more! Cut more!"
He shot out from under the blanket, scrambled to the con- 
trols and cut more. Then he switched on his transmitter and 
made a speceh distinguished by its passion. It was partly a 
seditious outburst and partly a lecture upon the basic func- 
tions of the human body. For all he knew the astonished 
listeners might include two rear admirals and a dozen com- 
modores. If so, he was educating them.
In return he received no heated retorts, no angry voice 
of authority. It was space-navy convention that a lone scout's 
job created an unavoidable madness among all those who per- 
formed it, and that ninety percent of them were overdue for 
psychiatric treatment. A scout on active service could and 
often did say things that nobody else in the space-navy dared 
utter. It's a wonderful thing to be recognized as crazy.
For three weeks they accompanied him in the glum silence 
which a family maintains around an imbecile relation. He 
chafed impatiently during this period because their top speed 
was far, far below his maximum velocity, and the need to 
keep pace with them gave him the feeling of an urgent motor- 
ist trapped behind a funeral procession.
The Sirian battleship Wassoon was the chief culprit; a 
great, clumsy contraption, it wallowed along like a bloated
hippopotamus, while a shoal of faster cruisers and destroyers 
were compelled to amble with it. He did not know its name 
but he did know that it was a battleship because on his de- 
tector-screens it resembled a glowing pea amid an array of 
fiery pinheads. Every time he looked at the pea he cursed 
it something awful. He was again venting his ire upon it
when the loud-speaker chipped in and spoke for the first time
in many days.
"Ponk!"
Ponk? What the devil was ponk? The word meant some- 
thing mighty important, he could remember that much. Hasti- 
ly he scrabbled through his code-book and found it: Enemy
in sight.

No sign of the foe was visible on his screens. Evidently they
were beyond detector range, and had been spotted only by the 
escort's advance-guard of four destroyers running far
ahead.
"Dial F," ordered the loud-speaker.
So they were changing frequency in readiness for battle.
Leeming turned the dial of his multiband receiver from T
back to F.
On the screens five glowing dots swiftly angled away from 
the main body of the escort. Four were mere pinheads, the 
fifth and middle one about half the size of the pea. A cruiser 
and four destroyers were escaping the combat area for the 
time-honored purpose of getting between the enemy and his 
nearest base.
In a three-dimensional medium where speeds were tre- 
mendous and space was vast, this tactic never worked. It 
did not stop both sides from trying to make it work whenever
the opportunity came along. This could be viewed as eternal 
optimism or persistent stupidity, according to the state of 
one's liver.
The small group of would-be ambushers scooted as fast 
as they could make it, hoping to become lost within the 
confusing welter of starlights before the enemy came 
near enough to detect the move. Meanwhile, the Wassoon and its
attendant cohort plugged steadily onward. Ahead, almost at 
the limit of the fleet's detector range, the four destroyers con- 
tinued to advance without attempting to disperse or change 
course.
"Two groups of ten converging from forty-five degrees 
rightward, descending inclination fifteen," reported the for- 
ward destroyers.
"Classification?" demanded the Wassoon. 
"Not possible yet."
Silence for six hours, then, "Two groups still maintaining
same course; each appears to consist of two heavy cruisers 
and eight monitors." 
Slowly, ever so slowly, twenty faintly discernable dots ap- 
peared on Leeming's screens. This was the time when he and 
his escort should be discovered by the enemy's detection de- 
vices. The foe must have spotted the leading destroyers hours 
ago; either they weren't worried about a mere four ships or, 
more likely, had taken it for granted that they were friendly. 
It would be interesting to watch their reaction when they 
found the strong force farther behind.
He did not get the chance to observe this pleasing phe- 
nomenon. The loud-speaker let go a squawk of, "Ware ze- 
nith!" and automatically his gaze jerked upward to the screens 
above his head. They were pocked with a host of rapidly 
enlarging dots. He estimated that sixty to eighty ships were 
diving in fast at ninety degrees to the plane of the escort, 
but he didn't stop to count them. One glance was sufficient 
to tell him that he was in a definite hot-spot.
Forthwith he lifted his slender vessel's nose and switched to 
full boost. The result pinned him in his seat while his in- 
testines tried to wrap themselves around his spine. It was 
easy to imagine the effect upon the enemy's screens; they 
would see one mysterious, unidentifiable ship break loose from 
the target area and swoop around them at a speed previously 
thought impossible.
With luck, they might assume that what one ship could 
do all the others could do also. If there is anything a space- 
ship captain detests, it is to have a faster ship sneaking up on
his tail. The fiery end of a spaceship is its weak spot, for there 
can be no effective armament in an area filled with pro- 
pulsors.
Stubbornly, Leeming stuck to the upward curve which, if 
maintained long enough, would take him well to one side of 
the approaching attackers and round to the back of them; He 
kept full attention upon his screens. The oncomers held 
course in a tight, vengeful knot for four hours, by which time 
they were almost within shooting range of the escort. At that 
point their nerve failed. The fact that the escort still kept 
impassive formation, while one ship headed like a shooting 
star for their rear, made them suspect a trap. One thing the 
Combine never lacked was supicion of the Allies' motives and 
unshakable faith in their cunning.
So they curved out at right angles and spread in all di- 
rections, their detectors probing for another and bigger fleet 
that might be lurking just beyond visibility.
Belting along at top speed, one Lathian light cruiser real- 
ized that its new course would bring it within range of the 
missiles with which Leeming's strange, superfast ship presum- 
ably was armed. It tried to play safe by changing course 
again, and thereby delivered itself into the hands of the 
Wassoon's electronic predictors. The Wassoon fired; its mis- 
siles met the cruiser at the precise point where it came within 
range. Cruiser and missiles tried to occupy the same space at 
the same time. The result was a soundless explosion of great 
magnitude, and a flare of heat that temporarily obliterated 
every detector-screen within reach.

Another blast shone briefly high in the starfield and far 
beyond reach of the escort's armaments. A few minutes later 
a thin, reedy voice, distorted by static, reported that a strag- 
gling enemy destroyer had fallen foul of the distant ambush- 
ing party. This sudden loss, right outside the scene of action, 
seemed to confirm the enemy's belief that the Wassoon and 
its attendant fleet might be mere bait in a trap loaded with 
something formidable. They continued to radiate fast from 
their common center in an effort to locate the hidden menace
and, at the same time, avoid being caught in a bunch. 
Seeing them thus darting away like a school of frightened 
fish, Leeming muttered steadily to himself. A dispersed fleet 
would be easy prey to a superfast ship capable of overtaking 
and dealing with its units one by one. But without a single 
effective weapon he was impotent to take advantage of an 
opportunity that might never occur again. For the moment 
he had quite forgotten his role, not to mention his strict 
orders to avoid a space-fight at all costs.
The Wassoon soon reminded him with a sharp call of,
"Scout-pilot, where the hell do you think you're going?" 
"Up and around," replied Leeming sourly. 
"You're more of a liability than an asset," retorted the 
Wassoon, unappreciative of his efforts. "Get out while the 
getting is good."
Leeming yelled into the microphone, "I know when I'm not 
wanted, see? We're being sabotaged by defective zippers, 
see? Come on, lift those feet, Dopey - one, two, three, hup!"
As before, the listeners took no notice whatsoever. Leem- 
ing turned his ship onto a new course with plane parallel 
to that of the escort and high above them. They now became 
visible on his underbelly screens and showed themselves in 
the same unbroken formation but sweeping in a wide circle 
to get on the reverse course. That meant they were leaving 
him and heading homeward. The enemy, still scattered be- 
yond shooting range, must have viewed this move as danger- 
ous temptation for they continued to refrain from direct 
attack.
Quickly, the escort's array of shining dots slid off the 
screens as Leeming's vessel shot away from them. Ahead and 
well to starboard the detectors showed the two enemy groups 
that had first appeared. They had not dispersed in the same 
manner that their main force had done, but their course 
showed that they were fleeing the area at the best speed they 
could muster. This fact suggested that they really were two 
convoys of merchantment hugging close to their protecting 
cruisers. With deep regret Leeming watched them go. Given 
the weapons he could have swooped upon the bloated pa-
rade and slaughtered a couple of heavily-laden ships before 
the cruisers had time to wake up.
At full pelt he dived into the Combine's front and headed 
toward the unknown back areas. Just before his detectors 
lost range, his tailward screen flared up twice in quick suc- 
cession. Far behind him two ships had ceased to exist and
there was no way of telling whether these losses had been 
suffered by the escort or the enemy.
He tried to find out by calling on the interfleet frequency, 
"What goes? What goes?"
No answer.
A third flash covered the screen. It was weak with distance 
and swiftly fading sensitivity.
Keying the transmitter to give his identifying code-number, 
he called again.
No reply.
Chewing his bottom lip with annoyance, he squatted four- 
square in the pilot's seat and scowled straight ahead while 
the ship arrowed toward a dark gap in the hostile starfield. 
In due time he got beyond the full limit of Allied warship's 
non-stop range. At that point he also got beyond help.

The first world was easy meat. Believing it impossible for 
any Allied ship to penetrate this far without refueling and 
changing tubes, the enemy assumed that any ship detected 
in local space must be friendly or, at least, neutral. Therefore, 
when their detectors picked him up they didn't even bother 
to radio a challenge; they just let him zoom around unham- 
pered by official nosiness.
So he found the first occupied world by the simple process 
of shadowing a small convoy heading inward from the spa- 
tial front, following them long enough to make an accurate 
plot of their course. Then, because he could not afford to 
waste days and weeks' crawling along at their relatively slow 
pace, he arced over them and raced ahead until he reached 
the inhabited planet for which they were bound.
Checking the planet was equally easy. He went twice 
around its equator at altitude sufficiently low to permit swift
visual observation. Complete coverage of the sphere was not 
necessary to gain a shrewd idea of its status, development and 
potentialities. What he could see in a narrow strip around its 
belly was enough of a sampling for the purposes of the Ter- 
ran Intelligence Service.
In short time he spotted three spaceports, two empty, the 
third holding eight merchant ships of unknown origin and 
three Combine war vessels. Other evidence showed the world 
to be heavily populated and well-advanced. He could safely 
mark it as a pro-Combine planet of considerable military 
value.
Shooting back into free space, he dialed X, the special 
long-range frequency, and beamed this information together 
with the planet's approximate diameter, mass and spatial co- 
ordinates.
There was no reply to his signal and he did not expect one. 
He could beam signals outward with impunity but they 
could not beam back into enemy territory without awaken- 
ing hostile listening-posts to the fact that someone must be 
operating in their back areas. Beamed signals were highly 
directional and the enemy was always on the alert to pick 
up and decipher anything emanating from the Allied front 
while ignoring all broadcasts from the rear.
The next twelve worlds were found in substantially the 
same manner as the first one: by plotting interplanetary and 
interstellar shipping routes and following them to their ter- 
mini. He signaled details of each one and each time was re- 
warded with silence. By this time he found himself deploring 
the necessary lack of response; he had been gone long 
enough to yearn for the sound of a human voice.
After weeks that stretched into months, enclosed in a thun- 
dering metal bottle, he was becoming afflicted with an appal- 
ling loneliness. Amid this vast stretch of stars, with seemingly 
endless planets on which lived not a soul to call him Joe, 
he could have really enjoyed the arrival from faraway of an 
irate human voice bawling him out good and proper for some 
error, real or fancied. He'd have sat there and bathed his 
mind in the stream of abuse. Constant, never-ending silence
was the worst of all, the hardest to bear.
Finally, while he was nosing after a merchant convoy in 
expectation of tracing a thirteenth planet, he got some vocal 
sounds that at least broke the monotony. He was following 
far behind and high above the group of ships and they, 
feeling secure in their own backyard, were keeping no de- 
tector-watch and were unaware of his presence. Fiddling idly 
with the controls of his receiver, he suddenly hit upon an 
enemy interfleet frequency and picked up a conversation 
between ships.
The unknown lifeform manning the vessels had loud, some- 
what bellicose voices, but spoke a langauge with sound-forms 
curiously akin to Terran speceh. To Leeming's ears it came 
as a stream of cross-talk that his mind instinctively framed 
in Terran words. It went like this:
First voice: "Mayor Snorkum will lay the cake."
Second voice: "What for the cake be laid by Snorkum?" 
First voice: "He will starch his mustache."
Second voice: "That is night-gab. How can he starch a 
tepid mouse?"
They spent the next ten minutes in what sounded like an 
acrimonious argument about what one repeatedly called a 
tepid mouse, while the other insisted that it was a torpid 
moose. Leeming found that trying to follow the point and 
counterpoint of this debate put quite a strain upon the cere- 
bellum. He suffered it until something snapped.
Tuning his transmitter to the same frequency, he bawled, 
"Mouse or moose, make up your goddam minds!"
This produced a moment of dumbfounded silence before 
the first voice grated, "Gnof, can you lap a pie-chain?"
"No, he can't," shouted Leeming, giving the unfortunate 
Gnof no chance to brag of his ability as a pie-chain lapper.
There came another pause, then Gnof resentfully told all 
and sundry, "I shall lambast my mother."
"Dirty dog!" said Leeming. "Shame on you!"
The other voice now informed, mysteriously, "Mine is a fat 
one."
"I can imagine," Leeming agreed.
"Clam-shack?" demanded Gnof in tones clearly translat-
able as, "Who is that?"
"Mayor Snorkum," Leeming told him.
For some weird reason known only to alien minds, this 
information cause the argument to start all over again. They 
commenced by debating Mayor Snorkum's antecedents and 
future prospects (or so it sounded) and gradually and en- 
thusiastically worked their way along to the tepid mouse (or
torpid moose). 
There were moments when they became mutually heated 
about something or other, possibly Snorkum's habit of keep- 
ing his moose on a pie-chain. Finally they dropped the sub- 
ject by common consent and switched to the abstruse ques- 
tion of how to paddle a puddle (according to one) or how to 
peddle a poodle (according to the other).
"Holy cow!" said Leeming fervently.
It must have born close resemblance to something pretty 
potent in the hearers' language because they broke off and 
again Gnof challenged, "Clam-shack?"
"Go jump, Buster!" Leeming invited.
"Bosta? My ham-plank is Bosta, enk?" His tones suggested 
considerable passion about the matter as he repeated, "Bosta, 
enk?"
"Yeah," confirmed Leeming. "Enk!"
Apparently this was regarded as the last straw; their voices 
went off and even the faint hum of the carrier-wave disap- 
peared. It looked as though he had managed to utter some- 
thing extremely vulgar without having the vaguest notion of 
what he had said.
Soon afterward the carrier-wave came on and a new voice 
called in guttural but fluent Cosmoglotta, "What ship? What 
ship?"
Leeming did not answer.
A long wait, and then the voice demanded again, "What 
ship?"
Still Leeming took no notice. The mere fact that they had 
not broadcast a challenge in war-code showed that they did 
not believe it possible for a hostile vessel to be in the vi-
cinity. Indeed, this was suggested by the stolid way in which 
the convoy continued to plug along without changing course 
or showing visible sign of alarm.
Having obtained adequate data on the enemy's course, 
Leeming bulleted ahead of them and in due time came across 
the thirteenth planet. He beamed the information home- 
ward, went in search of the next. It was found quickly, being 
in an adjacent solar system.
Time rolled by as his probes took him across a broad 
stretch of Combine-controlled space. After discovering the 
fiftieth planet he was tempted to return to base for over- 
haul and further orders. One can have a surfeit of explora- 
tion, and he was sorely in need of a taste of Terra, its fresh 
air, green fields and human companionship.
What kept him going were the facts that the ship was run- 
ning well and the fuel supply was only a quarter expended. 
Also, he could not resist the notion that the more thoroughly 
he did this job, the greater the triumph upon his return - and 
the better the prospects of quick promotion.
So he continued on, piling up the total to seventy-two 
planets before he reached a preselected spot deep in the 
enemy hinterland, at a point facing the Allied outposts around 
Rigel. From here he was expected to send a coded signal to 
which they would respond, this being the only message 
they'd risk sending him.
He beamed the one word "Awa," repeated at intervals for 
a couple of hours. It meant, "Able to proceed; awaiting in- 
structions." To that they should give a reply too brief for 
enemy interceptors to catch; either the word "Reeter," mean- 
ing "We have sufficient information; return at once," or else 
the word "Buzz," meaning "We need more information; con- 
tinue your reconnaissance."
What he did get back was a short-short squirt of sound 
that he recognized as an ultra-rapid series of numbers. They 
came in so fast that it was impossible to note them aurally; 
he taped them as they were repeated, then reached for his 
code-book as he played them off slowly.
The result was, "47926 Scout-Pilot John Leeming promoted 
lieutenant as from date of receipt." 
He stared at this a long time before he resumed sending 
"Awa-Awa." For his pains he got back the word "Foit." He 
tried again and once more was rewarded with "Foit." It 
looked vaguely blasphemous to him, like the favorite curse
of some rubbery creature that had no palate.
Irritated by this piece of nonsense, he stewed it over in 
his mind, decided that some intervening Combine station
was playing his own game by chipping in with confusing 
comments. In theory, the enemy shouldn't be able to inter- 
fere because he was using a frequency far higher than those 
they favored. All the same, somebody was doing it.
Concluding that no recall meant the same thing as not 
being recalled, he resumed his search for hostile planets. It 
was four days later that he happened to be looking idly 
through his code-book and found the word "Foit" defined as 
"Use your own judgment."
He thought it over, decided that to go home with a record 
of seventy-two enemy planets discovered and identified would 
be a wonderful thing, but to be credited with a nice, round, 
imposing number such as one hundred would be wonderful 
enough to verge upon the miraculous. They'd make him a 
Space-Admiral at least.
This idea was so appealing that he at once settled for a 
score of one hundred planets as his target-figure before re- 
turning to base. As if to give him the flavor of coming glory, 
four enemy-held worlds were found close together in the 
next solar system and these boosted his total to seventy-six.
He shoved the score up to eighty. Then to eighty-one.
The first hint of impending disaster showed itself as he ap- 
proached number eighty-two.


III

TWO DOTS glowed on his detector-screens. They were fat but 
slow-moving, and it was impossible to decide whether they 
were warships or cargo-boats. But they were traveling in line
abreast and obviously headed some place to which he'd not
yet been. Using his always successful tactic of shadowing 
them until he had obtained a plot, he followed them awhile,
made sure of the star toward which they were heading, and
then bolted onward.
He had got so far in advance that the two ships had faded 
right out of his screens, when suddenly a propulsor tube blew 
its desiccaated lining forty miles back along the jet-track. 
The first he knew of it was when the alarm bell shrilled on the 
instrument board, the needle of a pressure meter dropped 
halfway back, the needle of its companion heat meter crawled 
toward the red dot that indicated melting point.
Switfly he cut off the feed to that propulsor. Its pressure 
meter immediately fell to zero, its heat meter climbed a few 
more degrees, hesitated, stayed put a short while, then reluc-
tantly slid back. 
The ship's tail was filled with twenty huge propulsors
around which were splayed eight steering-jets of compara- 
tively small diameter. If any one propulsor ceased to func- 
tion, the effect was not serious. It meant no more than a five 
percent loss in power output and a corresponding loss in the 
ship's functional efficiency. On Earth they had told him that 
he could sacrifice as many as eight propulsors - providing that 
they were symetrically positioned - before his speed and ma- 
neuverability were reduced to those of a Combine destroyer. 
With this in mind, he stubbornly rejected the impulse to 
reverse course and run for Rigel. Instead he kept on toward 
planet number eighty-two, reached it, surveyed it and beamed 
the information. Then he detected a shipping route between 
here and a nearby solar system, started along it in the hope
of finding planet number eighty-three and adding it to his 
score. A second propulsor shed its lining when halfway there,
a third just before arrival.
All the same, he circumnavigated the world at reduced speed and 
headed for free space with the intention of trans- 
mitting the data. But he never did so. Five more propulsors
blew their linings simultaneously. He had to move mighty fast
to cut off the feed before their unhampered blasts could melt 
his entire tail away.
The defective drivers must have been bunched together off-
center, for the ship now refused to run straight. Instead, it 
started to describe a wide curve that eventually would bring 
it back in a great circle to the planet it had just left. To make 
matters worse, it also commenced a slow, regular rotation 
around its longitudinal axis, with the result that the entire 
starfield seemed to revolve before Leeming's eyes.
The vessel was obviously beyond all hope of salvation as 
a cosmos-traversing vehicle, and the best he could hope to 
do with it was get it down in one piece for the sake of his 
own skin. He concentrated solely upon achieving this end. 
Though in serious condition, the ship was not wholly beyond 
control; the steering-jets could function perfectly when not 
countered by a lopsided drive, and the braking-jets were 
capable of roaring with full-throated power.
As the planet filled the forward view-port and its crinkled 
surface expanded into hills and valleys, he cut off all re- 
maining tail propulsors, used his steering-jets to hold the 
ship straight, and blew his braking-jets repeatedly. The longi- 
tudinal rotation ceased and speed of descent slowed while his 
hands sweated at the controls.
It was dead certain that he could not land in the ortho- 
dox manner by standing the ship on its tail-fins. He lacked 
enough power-output to come down atop a carefully con- 
trolled column of fire. The ship was suffering from a much- 
dreaded condition known to the space service as weak-arse, 
and that meant he'd have to make a belly-landing at just 
enough speed to retain control up to the last moment. 
His eyes strained at the observation-port while the on- 
coming hills widened, the valleys lengthened, and the planet's 
surface fuzz changed to a pattern of massed treetops. Then 
the whole picture appeared to leap at him as if suddenly 
brought into focus under a powerful microscope. He fired four 
propulsors and the lower steering-jets in an effort to level 
off.
The nose lifted as the vessel shot across a valley and
cleared the opposite hill by a few hundred feet. In the next 
two minutes he saw five miles of treetops, a clearing from 
which arose an army of trellis masts bearing radio antennae, 
a large village standing beside a river, another great expanse 
of trees followed by a gently rolling stretch of moorland.
This was the place! Mentally reciting a quick prayer, he 
swooped in a shallow curve with all braking-jets going full 
blast. Despite this dexterous handling, the first contact slung 
him clean out of his seat and threw him against the metal 
wall beneath his bunk. Bruised and shaken, but otherwise 
unhurt, he scrambled from under the bunk while still the ship 
slid forward to the accompaniment of scraping, knocking 
sounds from under its belly.
Gaining the control board, he stopped the braking-jets, cut 
off all power. A moment later the vessel expended the last of 
its forward momentum and came to a halt. The resulting si- 
lence was like nothing he had experienced in many months. 
It seemed almost to bang against his ears. Each breath he 
took became a loud hiss, each step a noisy, metallic clank.

Going to the lock, he examined the atmospheric analyzer. 
It registered exterior air pressure at fifteen pounds and said 
that it was much like Terra's except that it was slightly 
richer in oxygen. At once he went through the air lock, stood 
in the rim of its outer door and found himself fourteen feet 
above ground level.
The automatic ladder was of no use in this predicament 
since it was constructed to extend itself from air lock to tail, 
a direction that now was horizontal. He could hang by his 
hands from the rim and let himself drop without risk of in- 
jury, but he could not jump fourteen feet to get back in. The 
one thing he lacked was a length of rope.
Muttering some choice cuss words, he returned to the cab- 
in, hunted in vain for something that would serve in lieu of 
rope. He was about to rip his blankets into suitable strips 
when he remembered the power cables snaking from control 
board to engine room. It took him a hurried half-hour to de-
tach a suitable length from its terminals and tear it from its 
wall fastenings.
During the whole of this time his nerves were tense and his 
ears were continually perked for outside sounds indicating
the approach of the enemy. If they should arrive in time to 
trap him within the ship, he'd have no choice but to set off 
the explosive charge and blow himself apart along with the 
vessel. But silence was still supreme when he tied one end 
of the cable inside the lock, tossed the rest outside and slid 
down it to the ground.
He landed in thick, cushiony vegetation bearing a slight 
resemblance to heather. Racing to the ship's tail, he had a 
look at the array of propulsors, realized that he was lucky 
to have survived. Eleven of the great tubes were completely 
without their essential linings, the remaining nine were in 
poor condition and obviously could not have withstood more 
than another two or three days of steady blasting.
Now he took a quick look at what was visible of the world 
on which he stood. The sky was a deep, dark blue verging 
obscurely to purple, with a faint, cloudlike haze on the 
eastern horizon. The sun, now past its zenith, looked a frac- 
tion larger than Sol and had a redder color.
Underfoot the heather-like growth covered a gently undu- 
lating landscape running to the eastward horizon where the 
first ranks of trees stood guard. To the west the undergrowth 
again gave way to great trees, the edge of the forest being 
half a mile away.
Leeming now found himself in another quandary. If he 
blew the ship to pieces, he would destroy with it a lot of 
stuff he needed now or might need later on - in particular, 
a large stock of concentrated food. To save the latter he 
would have to remove it from the ship and take it a safe 
distance from the coming explosion - all the while running the 
risk of having the enemy put in an appearance.
A sense of urgency prevented him from pondering the sit- 
uation very long. This was a time for action rather than 
thought. He started working like a maniac, grabbing packages 
and cans from the ship's store and throwing them out of the
air lock. This went on until the entire food stock had been
cleared. Still the enemy was conspicuous by its absence.
Now he took up armloads from the waiting pile and bore 
them into the edge of the forest. When this was finished he 
climbed aboard the ship, had a last look around for anything 
worth saving. Making a roll of his blankets, he tied a water- 
proof sheet over them to form a compact bundle.
Satisfied that nothing remained worth taking, he put on his 
storm coat and tucked the bundle under his arm; then he 
pressed the red button at one side of the control board. There 
was supposed to be a delay of two minutes between activa- 
tion and the resulting wallop. It wasn't much time. Bolting 
through the airlock, he jumped straight out and dashed at 
top speed toward the forest. Nothing had happened by the 
time he reached the trees. Crouching behind the protective 
thickness of a great trunk, he waited for the bang.
Seconds ticked by without result. Something must have 
gone wrong. Cautiously he peeked around the rim of the 
trunk, debated within himself whether to go back and exam- 
ine the connections to the explosive charge. At that point the 
ship blew up.
It flew apart with a tremendous, ear-splitting roar that bent 
the trees and shook the skies. A great column of smoke, dirt, 
and shapeless lumps soared to a considerable height. Gobs of 
distorted metal screamed through the treetops and brought 
branches crashing down.
Somewhat awed by the unexpected violence of the explo- 
sion, Leeming sneaked a look around the tree trunk, saw a 
smoking crater surrounded by two or three acres of torn vege- 
tation. It was a sobering thought that for countless millions of 
miles he had been sitting on top of a bang that size.
When the enemy arrived, it was pretty certain that they 
would start a hunt for the missing crew. Leeming's prelimi- 
nary survey of the world, though consisting of only one quick 
sweep around its equator, had found evidence of some sort of 
organized civilization, including one spaceport holding five 
merchant ships and one Combine light cruiser. This showed 
that the local lifeform was at least of normal intelligence and
as capable as anyone else of adding two and two together. 
The relative shallowness of the crater and the wide scatter-
ing of remnants was clear evidence that the mystery ship 
had not plunged to destruction, but rather had blown apart 
after making a successful landing. Natives in the nearest vil- 
lage could confirm that there had been quite a long delay be- 
tween the ship's plunge over their rooftops and the subse- 
quent explosion. Examination of fragments would reveal non- 
Combine material. Their inevitable conclusion: that the vessel 
had been a hostile one and that its crew had got away un- 
scathed.
It would be wise, he decided, to put more distance be- 
tween himself and the crater before the enemy arrived and 
started sniffing around. Perhaps he was fated to be caught 
eventually, but it was up to him to postpone the evil day as 
long as possible.
The basic necessities of life are food, drink and shelter, 
with the main emphasis on the first of these. This fact de- 
layed his departure a little while. He had food enough to last 
for several months; but it was one thing to have it, another 
to keep it safe from harm. At all costs he must find a better 
hiding place to which he could return from time to time 
with the assurance that the supply would still be there.
He pressed farther into the forest, moving in a wide zig- 
zag as he cast about for a suitable cache. Finally he found a 
cavelike opening between the great arched roots of an im- 
mense tree. It was far from ideal, but it did have the virtue 
of being concealed deep within the woods.
It took him more than an hour to shift the food-pile for 
the third time and stack it neatly within the hole, leaving out 
a small quantity representing seven days' rations. When this 
task had been completed, he built up part of the opening 
with clumps of earth, used twigs and branches to fill in the 
rest. He now felt that if a regiment of enemy troops explored 
the locality, as they were likely to do, there was small chance 
of them discovering and either confiscating or destroying the 
cache on which his continued liberty might depend.
Stuffing the seven days' rations into a small rucksack, and 
tying the bundled blankets thereto, he set off at fast pace 
along the fringe of the forest headed southward. He had been 
trudging along for about three hours when a jetplane soared 
above the horizon, swelled in size, and shot silently over- 
head. It was followed some seconds later by a shrill scream.
It was an easy guess that the jetplane had come in re- 
sponse to a radio call telling about a spaceship in distress 
and a following explosion. No doubt there'd be great activity 
at the base from which it had come; once they received con- 
firmation that a ship had indeed been lost, the authorities 
would assume it to be one of their own and start checking by 
radio to find which one was missing. With luck it might be 
quite a time before they accept the fact that a vessel of un- 
known origin, probably hostile, had reached this far.
In any case, from now on they'd keep a sharp watch for 
survivors. Leeming decided that this was the time to leave 
the forest's fringe and progress under cover. His rate of 
movement would be slowed but at least he'd travel unob- 
served. There were two dangers in taking to the woods, but 
they'd have to be accepted as lesser evils.
For one, unless he was mighty careful he could lose his 
sense of direction and wander in a huge curve that eventually 
would take him back to the crater and straight into the arms 
of whoever was waiting there. For another, he ran the risk 
of encountering unknown forms of wild life possessed of un- 
imaginable weapons and unthinkable appetites.
Against the latter peril he had a defense that was extremely 
effective but hateful to use, namely, a powerful compressed- 
air pistol that fired breakable pellets filled with a stench so 
foul that one whiff would make anything that lived and
breathed vomit for hours - including, as often as not, the user.
Some Terran genius had worked it out that the real king of 
the wilds is not the lion nor the grizzly bear but a kittenish 
creature named Joe Skunk, whose every battle is a victorious 
rear-guard action, so to speak. Some other genius had synthe- 
sized a horrible liquid seventy-seven times more revolting 
than Joe's, with the result that an endangered spaceman
could never make up his mind whether to run like hell and 
chance being caught, or whether to stand firm, shoot, and 
subsequently puke himself to death.
Freedom is worth a host of risks, so he plunged deep into 
the forest and kept going. After about an hour's steady prog- 
ress he heard the whup-whup of many helicopters passing 
overhead, traveling toward the north. By the sound of it there 
were quite a few of them, but none could be seen crossing 
the few patches of sky visible between the treetops. He made 
a guess that they were a squadron of troop-carriers transport- 
ing a search party to the region of the crater.
Soon afterward he began to feel tired and decided to rest 
awhile upon a mossy bank. Reposing at ease, he pondered 
this exhaustion, realized that although his survey had shown 
this world to be approximately the same size as Terra, it must 
in fact be a little bigger or have slightly greater mass. His 
own weight was up perhaps as much as ten percent, though 
he had no way of checking it.
It then struck him that the day must be considerably 
longer than Earth's. The sinking sun was now about forty de- 
grees above the horizon. In the time since he'd landed, the 
arc it had covered showed that the day was somewhere be- 
tween thirty and thirty-two hours in length. He'd have to 
accommodate himself to that with extended walks and pro- 
longed sleeps and it wouldn't be easy. Wherever they may 
be, Terrans have a natural tendency to retain their own time- 
habits.

Isolation in space is a hell of a thing, he thought, as idly he 
toyed with the flat, oblong-shaped lump under the left-hand 
pocket of his jacket. The lump had been there so long that 
he was only dimly conscious of its existence; now it struck 
him with what approximated to a flash of pure genius that 
in the long, long ago someone had once mentioned this lump 
and described it as the "built-in emergency pack."
Taking out his pocketknife, he used it to slit the lining of 
his jacket. This produced a flat, shallow box of brown plastic. 
A hair-thin line ran around its rim, but there was no visible
means of opening it. Pulling and pushing it in a dozen differ- 
ent ways had no effect whatever.
Reciting several of the nine million names of God, he 
kicked the box with aggravated vim. Either the kick was the 
officially approved method of dealing with it, or some of the 
names were potent, for the box snapped open. At once he 
commenced examining the contents which, in theory, should 
assist him toward ultimate salvation.
The first was a tiny, bead-sized vial of transparent plastic 
ornamented with an embossed skull and containing an oily, 
yellowish liquid. Presumably, this was the death-pill, to be 
taken as a last extreme. Apart from the skull there was noth- 
ing to distinguish it from a love-potion.
Next came a small sealed can bearing no identifying mark- 
ings and devoid of a can opener to go with it. For all he 
knew it might be full of shoe polish, sockeye salmon or putty. 
He wouldn't put it past them to thoughtfully provide some 
putty in case he wanted to fix a window some place and thus 
save his life by ingratiating himself with his captors.
The next can was longer, narrower and had a rotatable 
cap. He twisted the cap and uncovered a sprinkler. Shaking 
it over his open palm he got a puff of fine powder resembling 
pepper. Well, that would come in very useful for coping 
with a pack of bloodhounds, assuming that there were blood- 
hounds in these here parts. Cautiously, he sniffed at his palm. 
The stuff smelled exactly like pepper.
He let go a violent sneeze, wiped his dusty hand on a 
handkerchief, closed the can and concocted some heated re- 
marks about the people at the space-base. This had imme- 
diate effect for the handkerchief burst into flames in his 
pocket. He tore it out, flung it down and danced on it. Open- 
ing the can again, he let a few grains of pepper fall upon a 
dry piece of rotten wood. A minute later the wood spat sparks 
and started blazing. This sent a betraying column of smoke 
skyward, so he danced on the wood until it ceased.
Exhibit number four was a miniature camera small enough 
to be concealed in the palm of the hand. As an aid to survival
its value was nil. It must have been included in the kit with
some other intention. Perhaps Terran Intelligence had insisted 
that it be provided in the hope that anyone who made a 
successful escape from a hostile world could bring a lot of 
photographic data home with him. Well, it was nice to think 
that someone could be that optimistic. He pocketed the cam- 
era, not with any expectation of using it, but solely because it 
was a beautiful piece of microscopic workmanship too good 
to be thrown away.
The fifth and last item was the most welcome and, so far as 
he was concerned, the only one worth a hoot: a luminous 
compass. He put it carefully into a jacket pocket. After some 
consideration he decided to keep only the pepper-pot. The 
death-pill he flicked into an adjacent bush. The can of shoe 
polish, sockeye, putty or whatever, he hurled as far as he 
could.
The result was a tremendous crash, a roar of flame, and a 
large tree leaped twenty feet into the air with dirt showering
from its roots. The blast knocked him full length on the 
moss; he picked himself up in time to see a great spurt of -
smoke sticking out of the treetops like a beckoning finger. 
Obviously visible for miles, it could not have been more effec-
tive if he'd sent up a balloon-borne banner bearing the words,
Here I am!
Only one thing could be done and that was to get out
fast. Grabbing up his load, he scooted southward at the best 
pace he could make between the trees. He had covered about 
two miles when he heard the distant, muted whup-whup of a 
helicopter descending upon the scene of the crime. There'd 
be plenty of room for it to drop into the forest because the 
explosive can of something-or-other had cleared a wide gap. 
He tried to increase his speed, dodging around bushes, clam- 
bering up sharply sloping banks, jumping across deep, ditch- 
like depressions, and all the time moving on leaden feet that 
felt as if they were wearing size twenty boots.
He forced himself to push on until darkness set in. Then 
he had a meal and bedded down in a secluded glade, rolling 
the blankets tightly around him and keeping his stink-gun 
near to hand. What kind of dangerous animal might stalk
through the night he did not know and was long past caring. 
A man must have sleep come what may, even at the risk of 
waking up in somebody's belly.


IV

LULLED by the silence and his own tiredness, he slept for 
twelve hours. But despite the long and satisfying snooze, he 
awakened to find he was only partway through the alien 
night. There were many hours to go before sunrise. Feeling 
refreshed and becoming bored by waiting, he rolled his 
blankets, consulted the compass and tried to continue his 
southward march. In short time he had tripped headlong over 
hidden roots, stumbled knee-deep into a hidden stream.
Progress in open country was possible in the combined
light of stars and moons, but not within the forest. Reluc- 
tantly, he gave up the attempt. There was no point in wear- 
ing himself out blundering around in barely visible patches 
that alternated with areas of stygian darkness. Somehow he 
managed to find the glade again. There he lay in the blankets 
and waited with some impatience for the delayed dawn.
As soon as daylight had become sufficiently strong to per- 
mit progress he resumed his southward trek, keeping it up 
until midday. At that point he found a big rocky hollow that 
looked very much like an abandoned quarry. Trees grew 
thickly around its rim, bushes and lesser growths covered its 
floor, various kinds of creepers straggled down its walls. A 
tiny spring fed a midget stream that meandered across the 
floor until it disappeared down a hole in the base-rock. At 
least six caves were half-hidden in the walls, these varying 
from a narrow cleft to an opening the size of a large room.
Surveying the place, he realized that here was an ideal 
hideout. He had no thought of settling there for the rest of 
his natural life, but it would at least serve as a hiding place 
until the hue and cry died down and he'd had time to think 
out his future plan of action.
Climbing down the steep, almost vertical sides to the 
floor of the place proved a tough task. From his viewpoint
this was so much the better; whatever was difficult for him 
would be equally difficult for others and might deter any 
searching patrols that came snooping around.
He soon found a suitable cave and settled himself in by 
dumping his load on the dry, sandy ground. The next job was 
that of preparing some food. Building a smokeless fire of 
wood chips, he filled his dixie with water and converted part 
of his rations into a thick soup. This served to fill his belly 
and bring on a sense of peaceful well-being.
After finishing his meal he rested awhile, then set about
investigating his sunken domain. But, even though he did 
everything in the most lackadaisical, time-wasting manner of 
which he was capable, he still found it well-nigh impossible 
to cope with the lengthy day. He explored the pseudo-quarry
from side to side, from one end to the other, had two more 
meals, did various chores necessary and unnecessary, and still 
the sun was far from setting. As nearly as he could calculate, 
it would be another six hours before darkness fell. There was 
only one thing to do; at the first sign of a yawn, he wrapped 
himself in his blankets and drifted into a comfortable, dream- 
less sleep.
By the end of his fourth day in the cave, Leeming was 
bored to tears. This was not his idea of the full life and he
could no longer resist the urge to get busy. He'd have to be- 
stir himself before long in order to replenish his food sup- 
plies. The time had come, he felt to make a start on the te- 
dious chore of shifting the hidden dump southward and in-
stalling it in the cave.
Accordingly, he set forth at dawn and pushed to the north 
as fast as he could go. This activity boosted his spirits con- 
siderably, and he had to suppress the desire to whistle as he 
went along. In his haste he was making noise enough, and 
there was no sense in further advertising his coming to any
patrols that might be prowling through the woods. 
As he neared the scene of his landing, his pace slowed to 
the minimum. Here, if anywhere, caution was imperative 
since there was no knowing how many of the foe might still 
be lurking in the area. By the time he came within easy reach
of his cache he was slinking from tree to tree, pausing fre- 
quently to look ahead and listen.
It was a great relief to find that the food-dump had not 
been disturbed. The supply was intact, exactly as he had left 
it. There was no sign that the enemy had been anywhere 
near it. Emboldened by this, he decided to go to the edge of 
the forest and have another look at the crater. It would be in- 
teresting to learn whether the local lifeform had shown 
enough intelligence to take away the ship's shattered rem- 
nants with the idea of establishing its origin.
As quietly and carefully as a cat stalking a bird, he 
sneaked the short distance to the forest's rim, gained it a 
couple of hundred yards from where he'd expected to view 
the crater. Walking farther along the edge of the trees, he 
stopped and stared at the graveyard of his ship, his attention 
concentrated upon it to the exclusion of all else. Many dis- 
torted hunks of metal still lay around, and it was impossible 
to tell whether any of the junk had been removed.
Swinging his gaze to take in the total blast area, he was 
dumbfounded to discover three helicopters parked in line 
close to the trees. They were a quarter mile away, appar- 
ently unoccupied and with nobody hanging around. That 
meant their crews must be somewhere nearby. At once he 
started to back into the forest, his spine tingling with alarm. 
He had taken only two steps when fallen leaves crunched be- 
hind him, something hard rammed into the middle of his 
back, and a voice spoke in harsh, guttural tones.
"Smooge!" it said.
Bitterness at his own folly surged through Leeming's soul 
as he turned around to face the speaker. He found himself 
confronted by a humanoid six inches shorter than himself 
but almost twice as broad; a squat, powerful creature wearing 
a dun-colored uniform and a metal helmet, and grasping a 
lethal instrument recognizable as some kind of gun. This char- 
acter had a scaly, lizard-like skin, horn-covered eyes and no 
eyelids. He watched Leeming with the cold, unblinking stare 
of a rattlesnake.
"Smooge!" he repeated, giving a prod with the gun.
Raising his hands, Leeming offered a deceitful smile and 
said in fluent Cosmoglotta, "There is no need for this. I am 
a friend, an ally."
It was a waste of breath. Either the other did not under- 
stand Cosmoglotta or he could recognize a thundering lie 
when it was offered. His reptilian face showed not the slight- 
est change of expression; his eyes retained their blank stare 
as he emitted a shrill whistle.
Twenty more of the enemy responded by emerging from 
the forest at a point near where the helicopters were sta-
tioned. Their feet made distinct thuds as they ran with the
stubby, clumping gait of very heavy men. Surrounding Leem- 
ing, they examined him with the same expressionless stare. 
Next they gabbled together in a language slightly reminiscent 
of the crazy talk he had interrupted in space.
"Let me elucidate the goose."
"Dry up; the bostaniks all have six feet."
"Now look here," Leeming interrupted, lowering his arms. 
"Smooge!" shouted his captor! making a menacing gesture
with the gun.
Leeming raised his arms again and glowered at them. Now 
they held a brief conversation containing frequent mention 
of cheese and sparkplugs. It ended to their common satisfac- 
tion after which they searched him. This was done by the 
simple method of confiscation, taking everything in his posses- 
sion including his belt.

That done, they nudged him toward the helicopters. He 
went, trudging surlily along while holding up his pants with 
his hands.
At their command he climbed into a helicopter, turned 
quickly to slam the door in the hope that he might be able to 
lock them out long enough to take to the air without getting 
shot. They did not give him the chance. One was following 
close upon his heels and was halfway through the door even 
as he turned. Four more piled in. The pilot took his seat, 
started the motor. Overhead vanes jerked, rotated slowly, 
speeded up.
The 'copter bounced a couple of times, left the ground,
soared into the purplish sky. It did not travel far. Crossing
the wide expanse of moorland and the woods beyond, it
descended upon a concrete square at back of a grim-looking 
building. To Leeming's mind, the place resembled a military 
barracks or an asylum for the insane.
Here, they entered the building, hustled him along a corri- 
dor and into a stone-walled cell. They slammed and locked 
the heavy door in which was a small barred grille. A mo- 
ment later one of them peered between the bars.
"We shall bend Murgatryd's socks," announced the face 
reassuringly.
"Thanks," said Leeming. "Damned decent of you."
The face went away. Leeming walked ten times around 
the cell before sitting on a bare wooden plank that presuma- 
bly was intended to serve as both seat and bed. There was 
no window through which to look upon the outside world, 
no opening other than the door. Resting his elbows on his 
knees, he held his face in his hands.
How long he sat there he did not know. They had de- 
prived him of his watch and he could not observe the prog- 
ress of the sun; thus he had no means of estimating the time. 
But after a long while a guard opened the door, made an un- 
mistakable gesture that he was to come out. He exited, found 
a second guard waiting in the corridor. With one in the 
lead and the other following, he was conducted through the 
building and into a large office.
The sole occupant was an autocratic specimen seated be- 
hind a desk on which were arrayed the contents of the 
prisoner's pockets. Leeming came to a halt before the desk, 
still holding up his pants. The guards positioned themselves 
on either side of the door and managed to assume expres- 
sions of blank servility.
In fluent Cosmoglotta, the one behind the desk said, "I am 
Major Klavith. You will address me respectfully as becomes 
my rank. Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"What is your name, rank and number?"
"John Leeming, lieutenant, 47926."
"Your species?" 
"Terran. Haven't you ever seen a Terran before?" 
"I am asking the questions," retorted Klavith, "and you
will provide the answers." He paused to let that sink in, then 
continued, "You arrived here in a ship of Terran origin, did 
you not?"
"Sure did," agreed Leeming, with relish.
Bending forward, Klavith demanded with great emphasis,
"On which planet was your vessel refueled?"
There was silence as Leeming's thoughts moved fast. Ob- 
viously they could not credit that he had reached here non- 
stop, because such a feat was far beyond their own technical 
ability. Therefore they believed that he had been assisted 
by some world within the Combine's ranks. He was being or-
dered to name the traitors. It was a wonderful opportunity to 
create dissension, but unfortunately he was unable to make 
good use of it. He'd done no more than scout around hostile 
worlds, landing on none of them, and for the life of him he 
could not name or describe a Combine species anywhere on 
his route.
"Are you going to tell me you don't know?" prompted 
Klavith sarcastically.
"I do and I don't," Leeming responded. "The world was 
named to me only as XB173. I have no idea what you call it 
or what it calls itself."
"In the morning we shall produce comprehensive star-maps 
and you will mark thereon the exact location of this world. 
Between now and then you had better make sure that your 
memory will be accurate." Another long pause accompanied 
by the cold, lizard-like stare of his kind. "You have given us 
a lot of trouble. I have been flown here because I am the 
only person on this planet who speaks Cosmoglotta."
"The Lathians speak it."
"We are not Lathians as you well know. We are Zanga- 
stans. We do not slavishly imitate our allies in everything.
The Combine is an association of free peoples." 
"That may be your opinion. There are others."
"I am not in the least bit interested in other opinions. And 
I am not here to bandy words with you on the subject of
interstellar politics." Surveying the stuff that littered his desk, 
Klavith poked forward the pepper-pot. "When you were 
caught you were carrying this container of incendiary pow- 
der. We know what it is because we tested it. Why were you 
supplied with it?"
"It was part of my emergency kit."
"Why should you need incendiary powder in an emer- 
gency kit?"
"To start a fire to cook food or to warm myself," said Leem- 
ing, mentally damning the unknown inventor of emergency 
kits.
"You are lying to me," Klavith stated flatly. "You brought 
this stuff for purposes of sabotage."
"Fat lot of good I'd do starting a few blazes umpteen mil- 
lions of miles from home. When we hit the Combine we do it 
harder and more effectively."
"That may be so," Klavith conceded. "But nevertheless we 
intend to analyze this powder. Obviously, it does not burst 
into flame when air reaches it, otherwise it would be risky to 
carry. It must be in direct contact with an inflammable sub- 
stance before it will function. A ship bearing a heavy load of 
this stuff could destroy a lot of crops. Enough systematic 
burning would starve an entire species into submission, would 
it not?"
Leeming did not answer.
"I suggest that one of your motives in coming here was 
to test the military effectiveness of this powder."
"Why bother, when we could try it on our own wastelands 
without going to the trouble of transporting it partway across 
a galaxy?"
"That is not the same as inflicting it upon an enemy."
"If I'd toted it all the way here just to do some wholesale 
burning," Leeming pointed out, "I'd have brought a hun- 
dred tons and not a couple of ounces."
Klavith could not find a satisfactory answer to that so 
he changed the subject by poking a third object on his desk.
"I have identified this thing as a midget camera. It is a re- 
markable instrument and cleverly made. But since aerial 
photography is far easier, quicker, wider in scope and more 
efficient than anything you could achieve with this gadget, I 
see no point in you being equipped with it."
"Neither do I," agreed Leeming.
"Then why did you continue to carry it?"
"Because it seemed a darned shame to throw it away."
This reason was accepted without dispute. Grabbing the 
camera, Klavith put it in his pocket.
"I can understand that. It is as beautiful as a jewel. Hence- 
forth it is my personal property." He showed his teeth in 
what was supposed to be a triumphant grin. "The spoils of 
conquest." With contemptuous generosity he picked up the 
belt and tossed it at Leeming. "You may have this back. 
Put it on at once; a prisoner should be properly dressed while 
in my presence." He watched in silence as the other secured 
his pants, then said, "You were also in possession of a lumi- 
nous compass. That I can understand. It is about the only 
item that makes sense."
Leeming offered no comment.
"Except perhaps for this." Klavith took up the stink-gun. 
"Either it is a mock weapon or it is real." He pulled the 
trigger a couple of times and nothing happened. "Which is
it?" 
"Real."
"Then how does it work?"
"To prime it you must press the barrel inward."
"That must be done every time you are about to use it?" 
"Yes."
"In that case, it is nothing better than a compressed-air 
gun."
"Correct."
"I find it hard to believe that your authorities would arm 
you with anything so primitive," opined Klavith, showing un- 
concealed suspicion.
"Such a gun is not to be despised," offered Leeming. "It 
has its advantages. It needs no explosive ammunition, it will
fire any missile that fits its barrel, and it is comparatively si- 
lent. Moreover, it is just as intimidating as any other kind
of gun."
"You argue very plausibly," Klavith admitted, "but I doubt
whether you are telling me the whole truth."
"There's nothing to stop you trying it and seeing for your 
self," Leeming invited. His stomach started jumping at the 
mere thought of it.
"I intend to do just that." Switching to his own language, 
Klavith let go a flood of words at one of the guards.
Showing some reluctance, the guard propped his rifle 
against the wall, crossed the room and took the gun. Under 
Klavith's instructions, he put the muzzle to the floor and 
shoved. The barrel sank back, popped forward when the 
pressure was released. Pointing the gun at the wall he 
squeezed the trigger.
The weapon went phut! A tiny pellet burst on the wall and 
its contents immediately gassified. For a moment Klavith sat 
gazing in puzzlement at the damp spot. Then the awful 
stench hit him. His face took on a peculiar mottling, and he 
leaned forward and spewed with such violence that he fell 
off his chair.
Holding his nose with his left hand; Leeming snatched 
the compass from the desk with his right and raced for the 
door. The guard who had fired the gun was now rolling on the 
carpet and trying to turn himself inside-out with such single- 
minded concentration that he neither knew nor cared what 
anyone else was doing. The other guard had dropped his 
rifle while he leaned against the wall and emitted a rapid suc- 
cession of violent whoops. Not one of the three was in any 
condition to pull up his own socks, much less get in the way 
of an escapee.
Still gripping his nostrils, Leeming jerked open the door, 
dashed along the passage and out of the building. Hearing 
the clatter of his boots, three more guards rushed out of a 
room, pulled up as if held back by an invisible hand, and 
threw their dinners over each other.
Outside, Leeming let go of his nose. His straining lungs
took in great gasps of fresh air as he sprinted toward the 
helicopter that had brought him here. This machine provided
his only chance of freedom, since the barracks and the entire
village would be aroused at any moment and he could not
hope to outrun the lot on foot.
Reaching the helicopter, he clambered into it, locked the
door. The alien controls did not baffle him because he had 
made careful note of them during his previous ride. Still 
breathing hard while his nerves twanged with excitement, he 
started the motor. The vanes began to turn.
Nobody had yet emerged from the stench-ridden exit he 
had used, but somebody did come out of another door farther
along the building. This character was unarmed and appar- 
ently unaware that anything extraordinary had taken place. 
But he did know that the humming helicopter was in wrong 
possession. He yelled and waved his arms as the vanes speed- 
ed up. Then he dived back into the building, came out hold-
ing a rifle.
The 'copter made its usual preliminary bumps, then soared. 
Below and a hundred yards away the rifle went off like a 
firecracker. Four holes appeared in the machine's plastic 
dome; something nicked the lobe of Leeming's left ear and 
drew blood; the tachometer flew to pieces on the instrument 
board, A couple of fierce, hammer-like clunks sounded on the 
engine but it continued to run without falter and the 'copter 
gained height.
Bending sidewise, Leeming looked out and down through 
the perforated dome. His assailant was frantically shoving 
another magazine into the gun. A second burst of fire came 
when the 'copter was five hundred feet up and scooting fast. 
There came a sharp ping as a sliver of metal flew off the 
tail-fan, but that was the only hit.
Leeming took another look below. The marksman had 
been joined by half a dozen others, all gazing skyward. 
None were attempting to shoot because the fugitive was now 
out of range. Even as he watched, the whole bunch of them 
ran into the building, still using the smell-free door. He
could give a guess where they were heading for, namely, the 
radio room.
The sight killed any elation he might have enjoyed. He 
had the sky to himself, but not for long. Now the moot ques-
tion was whether he could keep it to himself long enough to 
make distance before he landed in the wilds and took to his
heels again.


V

DEFINITELY, he was not escaping the easy way. In many re-
spects he was worse off than he'd been before. Afoot in the 
forest he'd been able to trudge around in concealment, feed
himself, get some sleep. Now the whole world knew - or soon
would know - that a Terran was on the loose. To keep watch
while flying he needed eyes in the back of his head, and even 
those wouldn't save him if some superfast Jets appeared. 
And if he succeeded in dumping his 'copter unseen, he'd
have to roam the world without weapon of any kind.
By now he was some distance over the forest in which 
he'd been wandering. It struck him that when he'd been cap-
tured and taken away, two helicopters had remained parked 
in this area. Possibly they had since departed for an unknown 
base. Or perhaps they were still there and about to rise in 
response to a radioed alarm. 
His alertness increased, he kept throwing swift glances 
around in all directions while the 'copter hummed onward. 
After twenty minutes a tiny dot arose from the far horizon. 
At that distance it was impossible to tell whether it was a 
'copter, a jetplane, or what. His motor chose this moment to 
splutter and squirt a thin stream of smoke. The whirling 
vanes hesitated, resumed their steady whup-whup. 
Leeming sweated with anxiety and watched the faraway 
dot. Again the motor lost rhythm and spurted more smoke. 
The dot grew a little larger but was moving at an angle 
that showed it was not heading straight for him. Probably it 
was the herald of an aerial hunt that would find him in 
short time.
The motor now became asthmatic, the vanes slowed, the 
'copter lost height. Greasy smoke shot from its casing in a 
series of forceful puffs, a fishy smell came with them. If a 
bullet had broken an oil line, thought Leeming, he couldn't 
keep up much longer. It would be best to decend while he 
still retained some control.
As the machine lowered he swung its tail-fan in an effort 
to zigzag and find a suitable clearing amid the mass of 
trees. Down he went to one thousand feet, to five hundred, 
and nowhere could he see a gap. There was nothing to do 
but use a tree as a cushion and hope for the best.
Reversing the tail-fan to arrest his forward motion, he 
sank into an enormous tree that looked capable of support- 
ing a house. Appearances proved deceptive for the huge 
branches were very brittle and easily gave way under the 
weight imposed upon them. To the accompaniment of re- 
peated cracks, the helicopter fell through the foliage in a 
rapid series of halts and jolts that made its occupant feel as 
though locked in a barrel that was bumping down a steep 
flight of stairs.
The last drop was the longest but ended in thick bushes 
and heavy undegrowth that served to absorb the shock. 
Leeming crawled out with bruised cheekbone and shaken 
frame. He gazed upward; there was now a wide hole in the 
overhead vegetation, but he doubted whether it would be 
noticed by any aerial observer unless flying very low.
The 'copter lay tilted to one side, its bent and twisted 
vanes forced to a sharp angle with the drive-shaft, bits of 
twig and bark still clinging to their edges. Hurriedly, he 
searched the big six-seater cabin for anything that might 
prove useful. Of weapons there were none. In the tool box 
he did find a twenty-inch spanner of metal resembling bronze 
and this he confiscated, thinking it better than nothing.
Under the two seats at the rear he discovered neat com- 
partments filled with alien food. It was peculiar stuff and not 
particularly appetizing in appearance, but right now he was 
hungry enough to gnaw a long-dead goat covered with flies. 
So he tried a circular sandwich made of what looked and
tasted like two flat disks of unleavened bread with a thin 
layer of white grease between them. It went down, stayed 
down and made him feel better. For all he knew the grease 
might have been derived from a pregnant lizard. He was long 
past caring. His belly demanded more and he ate another two 
sandwiches.
There was quite a stack of these sandwiches, plus a goodly 
number of blue-green cubes of what seemed to be some kind 
of highly compressed vegetable. Also a can of sawdust that 
smelled like chopped peanuts and tasted like a weird mixture 
of minced beef and seaweed. And, finally, a plastic bottle 
filled with mysterious white tablets.
Taking no chances on the tablets, he slung them into the 
undergrowth but retained the bottle which would serve for 
carrying water. The can holding the dehydrated stuff was 
equally valuable; it was strong, well-made, and would do 
duty as a cooking utensil. He now had food and a primitive 
weapon, but lacked the means of transporting the lot. There 
was far too much to go into his pockets.
While he pondered this problem, something howled across 
the sky about half a mile to the east. The sound had only 
just died away in the distance when something else whined 
on a parallel course half a mile to the west. Evidently the 
hunt was on.
Checking his impulse to run to some place better hidden 
from above, he took a saw-toothed instrument out of the 
tool kit, used it to remove the canvas covering from a seat. 
This formed an excellent bag, clumsy in shape, without straps 
or handles, but of just the right size. Filling it with his sup- 
plies, he made a last inspection of the wrecked helicopter 
and noticed that its tiny altimeter dial was fronted with a 
magnifying lense. The rim holding the lens was strong and 
stubborn, and he had to work carefully to extract the lens 
without breaking it.
Under the engine casing he found the reservoir of a wind- 
shield water-spray. It took the form of a light metal bottle 
holding about one quart. Detaching it, he emptied it, filled 
it with fuel from the 'copters tank. These final acquisitions
gave him the means of making a quick fire. Klavith could 
keep the automatic lighter and the pepper-pot and burn 
down the barracks with them. He, Leeming, had got some- 
thing better. A lens does not exhaust itself or wear out. He
was so gratified with his loot he forgot that the lens was 
somewhat useless at night.
Now that he was all set to go he wasn't worried about how
soon the searchers spotted the tree-gap and the 'copter. In
the time it would take them to drop troops on the spot, he 
could flee beyond sight or sound, becoming lost within the 
maze of trees. The only thing that bothered him was the pos- 
sibility that they might have some species of trained animal 
capable of tracking him wherever he went.
He didn't relish the idea of a Zangastan land-octopus, or 
whatever it might be, snuffling up to him in the middle of the 
night and embracing him with rubbery tentacles while he was 
asleep. There were several people back home for whom such 
a fate would be more suitable, professional loud-mouths 
who'd be shut up for keeps. However, chances had to be 
taken. Shouldering his canvas bag, he left the scene.

By nightfall he'd put about four miles between himself 
and the abandoned helicopter. He could not have done more 
even if he'd wished; the stars and three tiny moons did not 
provide enough light to permit further progress. Aerial activ- 
ity had continued without abate during the whole of this 
time, but ceased when the sun went down.
The best sanctuary he could find for the night was a de- 
pression between huge tree-roots. With rocks and sod he 
built a screen at one end of it, making it sufficiently high to 
conceal a fire from anyone stalking him at ground level. That 
done, he gathered a good supply of dry twigs, wood chips 
and leaves. With everything ready he suddenly discovered 
himself lacking the means to start a blaze. The lens was use- 
less in the dark; it was strictly for daytime only, beneath an 
unobscured sun.
This started him on a long spell of inspired cussing after 
while he hunted around until he found a stick with a sharply
splintered point. This he rubbed hard and vigorously in the 
crack of a dead log. Powdered wood accumulated in the 
channel as he kept on rubbing with all his weight behind the 
stick. It took twenty-seven minutes of continuous effort before 
the wood-powder glowed and gave forth a thin wisp of 
smoke. Quickly, he stuck a splinter wetted with 'copter fuel 
into the middle of the faint glow and at once it burst into 
flame. The sight made him feel as triumphant as if he'd won 
the war single-handed.
Now he got the fire going properly. The crackle and spit 
of it was a great comfort in his loneliness. Emptying the 
beef-seaweed compound onto a glossy leaf half the size of a 
blanket, he three-quarters filled the can with water, stood it 
on the fire. To the water he added a vegetable cube and a 
small quantity of the stuff on the leaf, and hoped that the 
result would be a hot and nourishing soup. While waiting 
for this alien mixture to cook he gathered more fuel, stacked 
it nearby, sat close to the flames and ate a grease sandwich.
After the soup had simmered for some time he put it 
aside to cool sufficiently to be sipped straight from the can. 
When eventually he tried it the stuff tasted much better 
than expected, thick, heavy, and now containing a faint 
flavor of mushrooms. He absorbed the lot, washed the can 
in an adjacent stream, dried it by the fire and carefully re- 
filled it with the compound on the leaf. Choosing the biggest 
lumps of wood from his supply, he arranged them on the 
flames to last as long as possible, and lay down within warm- 
ing distance.
It was his intention to spend an hour or two considering 
his present situation and working out his future plans. But 
the soothing heat and the satisfying sensation of a full paunch 
lulled him to sleep within five minutes. He sprawled in the 
jungle with the great tree towering overhead, its roots rising 
on either side, the fire glowing near his feet while he emitted 
gentle snores and enjoyed one of the longest, deepest sleeps 
he had ever known.

With the sunrise he breakfasted on another can of soup
and a sandwich. Kicking apart the remnants of the fire, he 
picked up his belongings and headed to the south. This di- 
rection would take him farther from the center of the search 
and, to his inward regret, would also put mileage between 
him and the cache of real Terran food. On the other hand, 
a southward trek would bring him nearer to the equatorial 
belt in which he had seen three spaceports during his circum- 
navigation. Where there are ports there are ships.
So all that day he continued to plod southward. Half a 
dozen times he sought brief shelter while aircraft of one sort 
or another scouted overhead. At dusk he was still within the 
forest and the aerial snooping ceased. The night was a repe- 
tition of the previous one, with the same regrets over the loss 
of his blankets, the same difficulty in making a fire. Sitting by 
the soothing blaze, his insides filled and his legs enjoying a 
welcome rest, he felt vaguely surprised that the enemy had 
not thought to maintain the search through the night. Al- 
though he had shielded his fire from ground-level observation, 
it was a complete giveaway that he could not hope to extin- 
guish before it was seen from above.
The next day was uneventful. Aerial activity appeared to 
have ceased. At any rate, no planes came his way. Perhaps 
for some reason known only to themselves they were concen- 
trating the search elsewhere. He made good progress with- 
out interruption or molestation and, when the sun stood 
highest, used the lens to create a smokeless fire and make 
himself another meal. Again he ate well, since the insipid but 
satisfying alien food was having no adverse effect upon his 
system. A check on how much he had left showed that there 
was sufficient for another five or six days.
In the mid-afternoon of the second day afterward he 
reached the southern limit of the forest and found himself 
facing a broad road. Beyond it stretched cultivated flatlands 
containing several sprawling buildings that he assumed to 
be farms. About four miles away there arose from the plain 
a cluster of stone buildings around which ran a high wall. At 
that distance he could not determine whether the place was a 
fortress, a prison, a hospital, a lunatic asylum, a factory pro-
tected by a top security barrier, or something unthinkable 
that Zangastans preferred to screen from public gaze. What- 
ever it was, it had a menacing appearance. His intuition told 
him to keep his distance from it.
Retreating a couple of hundred yards into the forest, he 
found a heavily wooded hollow, sat on a log and readjusted 
his plans. Faced with an open plain that stretched as far as 
the eye could see, with habitations scattered around and with 
towns and villages probably just over the horizon, it was ob- 
vious that he could no longer make progress in broad day- 
light. On a planet populated by broad, squat, lizard-skinned 
people, a lighter-built and pink-faced Terran would stand out 
as conspicuously as a giant panda at a bishops' convention. 
He'd be grabbed on sight, especially if the radio and video 
had broadcast his description with the information that he 
was wanted.
The Combine included about twenty species, half of whom 
the majority of Zangastans had never seen. But they had a 
rough idea of what their co-partners looked like and they'd 
know a fugitive Terran when they found him. His chance of 
kidding his captors that he was an unfamiliar ally was mighty 
small; even if he could talk a bunch of peasants into half- 
believing him, they'd hold him pending a check by the au- 
thorities.
Up to this moment he'd been bored by the forest with its 
long parade of trees, its primitiveness, its silence, its lack of 
visible life. Now he viewed it as a sanctuary about to with- 
draw its protection. Henceforth he'd have to march by night 
and sleep by day - provided he could find suitable places in 
which to hide out. It was a grim prospect.
But the issue was clear-cut. If he wanted to reach a space- 
port and steal a scout-boat, he must press forward no mat- 
ter what the terrain and regardless of risks. His only alterna- 
tive was to play safe by remaining in the forest, perpetually 
foraging for food around its outskirts, living the life of a 
hermit until ready for burial.
The extended day had several hours yet to go; he decided 
to have a meal and get some sleep before the fall of darkness.
Accordingly, he started a small fire with the lens, made him- 
self a can of hot soup and had two sandwiches. Then he 
curled himself up in a wad of huge leaves and closed his 
eyes. The sun gave a comfortable warmth, and he drifted into 
a pleasant doze. Half a dozen vehicles buzzed and rattled
along the nearby road; brought wide awake, he cussed them 
with fervor, shut his eyes and tried again. It wasn't long 
before more passing traffic disturbed him.
This continued until the stars came out and two of the five 
small moons shed an eerie light over the landscape. He stood 
in the shadow of a tree overlooking the road and waited for 
the natives to go to bed - if they did go to bed, rather than
hang batlike by their heels from the rafters.
A few small trucks went past during this time. They had 
orange-colored headlights and emitted puffs of white smoke 
or vapor. They sounded somewhat like model locomotives. 
Leeming got the notion that they were steam-powered, prob- 
ably with a flash-boiler fired with wood. There was no way of 
checking on this.
Ordinarily he wouldn't have cared a hoot how Zangastan 
trucks operated. Right now it was a matter of some impor- 
tance. The opportunity might come to steal a vehicle and thus 
help himself on his way to wherever he was going. But as a 
fully qualified space-pilot he had not the vaguest idea of how 
to drive a steam engine. Indeed, if threatened with the death 
of a thousand lashes, he'd have been compelled to admit 
that he could not ride a bike.
While mulling over his educational handicaps, it occurred 
to him that he'd be dim-witted to sneak furtively through the 
night hoping for the chance to swipe a car or truck. The man 
of initiative makes his chances and does not sit around pray- 
ing for them to be placed in his lap.
Upbraiding himself, he sought around in the gloom until 
he found a nice, smooth, fist-sized rock. Then he waited for a 
victim to come along. The first vehicle to appear was travel- 
ing in the wrong direction, using the farther side of the road. 
Most of an hour crawled by before two more came together, 
also on the farther side, one close behind the other.
Across the road were no trees, bushes, or other means of 
concealment; he had no choice but to keep to his own side 
and wait in patience for his luck to turn. After what seemed 
an interminable period a pair of orange lamps gleamed in the 
distance, sped toward him. As the lights grew larger and 
more brilliant, he tensed in readiness.
At exactly the right moment he sprang from beside the tree, 
hurled the rock and leaped back into darkness. In his haste 
and excitement, he missed. The rock shot within an inch of 
the windshield's rim and clattered on the road. Having had 
no more than a brief glimpse of a vague, gesticulating shad- 
ow, the driver continued blithely on, unaware that he'd es- 
caped a taste of thuggery.
Making a few remarks more emphatic than cogent, Leem- 
ing recovered the rock and resumed his vigil. The next truck 
showed up at the same time as another one coming in the op- 
posite direction. He shifted to behind the tree trunk. The two 
vehicles passed each other at a point almost level with his 
hiding place: Scowling after their diminishing beams he took 
up position again.
Traffic had thinned with the lateness of the hour, and it 
was a good while before more headlights came beaming in the 
dark and running on the road's near side. This time he 
reacted with greater care and took better aim. A swift jump, 
he heaved the rock, jumped back.
The result was the dull whup of a hole being bashed 
through transparent plastic. A guttural voice shouted some- 
thing about a turkey leg, this being an oath in local dialect. 
The truck rolled another twenty yards, pulled up. A broad, 
squat figure scrambled out of the cab and ran toward the 
rear in evident belief that he'd hit something.
Leeming, who had anticipated this move, met him with 
raised spanner. The driver didn't even see him; he bolted 
round the truck's tail and the spanner whanged on his pate 
and he went down without a sound. For a horrid moment 
Leeming thought that he had killed the fellow. Not that one 
Zangastan mattered more or less in the general scheme of 
things. But he had his own peculiar status to consider. Even
the Terrans showed scant mercy to prisoners who killed while
escaping.
However, the victim emitted bubbling snorts like a hog in
childbirth and had plenty of life left in him. Dragging him 
to the side of the road, Leeming searched him, found noth-
ing worth taking. The wad of paper money was devoid of 
value to a Terran who'd have no opportunity to spend it.
Just then a long, low tanker rumbled into view. Taking a 
tight grip on the spanner, Leeming watched its approach and 
prepared to fight or run as circumstances dictated. It went 
straight past, showing no interest in the halted truck.
Climbing into the cab, he had a look around, found that
the truck was not steam-powered as he had thought. The en- 
gine was still running but there was no firebox or anything 
resembling one. The only clue to the power-source was a 
strong scent like that of alcohol mixed with a highly aromatic 
oil.
Tentatively, he pressed a button on the control panel; the 
headlights went out. He pressed it again and they came on. 
The next button produced a shrill, catlike yowl out front. 
The third had no effect whatever: he assumed that it con- 
trolled the self-starter. After some flddling around he found 
that the solitary pedal was the footbrake and that a lever on 
the steering wheel caused the machine to move forward or 
backward at speed proportionate to the degree of its shift. 
There was no sign of an ignition switch, gear-change lever, 
headlight dimmer or parking brake. The whole layout was a 
curious mixture of the ultra-modem and the antiquated.
Satisfied that he could drive it, he advanced the lever. The 
truck rolled forward, accelerated to a moderate pace and 
kept going at that speed. He moved the lever farther and the 
speed increased. The forest slid past on his left, the flatlands 
on his right, and the road was a yellow ribbon streaming 
under the bonnet. Man, this was the life! Relaxing in his seat 
and feeling pretty good, he broke into ribald song.
The road split. Without hesitation he chose the arm that 
tended southward. It took him through a straggling village in 
which very few lights were visible. Reaching the country be-
yond, he got onto a road running in a straight line across 
the plain. Five moons were in the sky, and the landscape 
looked ghostly and forbidding. Shoving the lever a few more 
degrees, he raced onward.
After an estimated eighty miles he by-passed a city, met 
desultory traffic on the road but continued in peace and 
unchallenged. Next he drove past a high stone wall surround- 
ing a cluster of buildings resembling those seen earlier. Peer- 
ing upward as he swept by, he tried to see whether there 
were any guards patrolling the wall-top, but it was impossible 
to tell without stopping the truck and getting out. That he 
did not wish to do, preferring to travel as fast and as far as 
possible while the going was good.
He'd been driving non-stop at high speed for several hours 
when a fire-trail bloomed in the sky and moved like a tiny 
crimson feather across the stars. As he watched, the feather 
floated around in a deep curve, grew bigger and brighter as 
it descended. A ship was coming in. Slightly to his left and 
far over the horizon there must be a spaceport.
Maybe within easy reach of him there was a scout-boat, 
fully fueled and just begging to be taken up. He licked his 
lips at the thought of it.
With its engine still running smoothly, the truck passed 
through the limb of another large forest. He made mental 
note of the place lest within short time he should be com- 
pelled to abandon the vehicle and take to his heels once 
more. After recent experiences he found himself developing 
a strong affection for forests; on a hostile world they were 
the only places offering anonymity and liberty.
Gradually the road veered to the left, leading him nearer 
and nearer toward where the hidden spaceport was presumed 
to be. The truck rushed through four small villages in rapid 
succession, all dark, silent and in deep slumber. Again the 
road split and this time he found himself in a quandary. 
Which arm would take him to the place of ships?
Nearby stood a signpost but its alien script meant nothing 
to him. Stopping the truck, he got out and examined his 
choice of routes as best he could in the poor light. The right
arm seemed to be the more heavily used to judge by the 
condition of its surface. Picking the right side, he drove 
ahead.
Time went on so long without evidence of a spaceport that 
he was beginning to think he'd made a mistake when a faint 
glow appeared in the forward sky. It came from somewhere 
behind a rise in the terrain, strengthened as he neared. He 
tooled up the hill, came over the crest and saw in a shallow 
valley a big array of floodlights illuminating buildings, con- 
crete emplacements, blast-pits, and four snouty ships standing 
on their tail-fins.


VI

HE SHOULD have felt overjoyed. Instead he became filled with 
a sense of wariness and foreboding. A complete getaway just 
couldn't be as easy as he'd planned: there had to be a snag 
somewhere.
Edging the truck over to the side of the road, he braked 
and switched off his lights. Then he surveyed the scene more 
carefully. From this distance the four vessels looked too big 
and fat to be scout-boats, too small and out-of-date to be war- 
ships. It was very likely that they were cargo carriers, prob- 
ably of the trampship type.
Assuming that they were in good condition and fully pre- 
pared for flight, it was not impossible for an experienced, de- 
termined pilot to take one up single-handed. And if it was 
fitted with an autopilot, he could keep it going for days and 
weeks. Without such assistance he was liable to drop dead 
through sheer exhaustion long before he was due to arrive 
anywhere worth reaching. The same problem did not apply 
to a genuine scout-boat because a one-man ship had to be 
filled with robotic aids. He estimated that these small mer- 
chantmen normally carried a crew of at least twelve apiece, 
perhaps as many as twenty.
Furthermore, he had seen a vessel coming in to land - so at 
least one of these four had not yet been serviced and was 
unfit for flight. There was no way of telling which one was
the latest arrival. But a ship in the hand is worth ten some 
place else. To one of his profession, the sight of waiting ves- 
sels was irresistible.
Reluctance to part company with the truck until the last 
moment, plus his natural audacity, made him decide that 
there was no point in trying to sneak across the well-lit space- 
port and reach a ship on foot. He'd do better to take the 
enemy by surprise, boldly drive into the place, park alongside 
a vessel and scoot up its ladder before they had time to collect 
their wits.
Once inside a ship with the air lock closed he'd be com- 
paratively safe. It would take them far longer to get him 
out than it would take him to master the strange controls 
and make ready to boost. He'd have shut himself inside a 
metal fortress, and the first blast of its propulsors would clear 
the area for a couple of hundred yards around. Their only 
means of thwarting him would be to bring up heavy artillery 
and hole or topple the ship. By the time they'd dragged big 
guns to the scene he should be crossing the orbit of the near- 
est moon.
He consoled himself with these thoughts as he maneuvered 
the truck onto the road and let it surge forward, but all the 
time he knew deep within his mind that this was going to be 
a crazy gamble. There was a good chance that he'd grab 
himself a cold-dead rocket short of fuel and incapable of 
taking off. In that event all the irate Zangastans needed to 
do was sit around until he'd surrendered or starved to death. 
That they'd be so slow to react as to give him time to swap 
ships was a possibility almost nonexistent.
Thundering down the valley road, the truck took a wide 
bend, raced for the spaceport's main gates. These were part- 
ly closed, leaving a yard-wide gap in the middle. An armed 
sentry stood at one side, behind him a hut containing others 
of the guard.
As the truck shot into view and roared toward him, the 
sentry gaped at it in dumb amazement, showed the typical 
reaction of one far from the area of combat. Instead of point- 
ing his automatic weapon in readiness to challenge, he
jumped into the road and tugged frantically to open the gates. 
The half at which he was pulling swung wide just in time for 
the truck to bullet through with a few inches to spare on 
either side. Now the sentry resented the driver's failure to say, 
"Good morning!" or "Drop dead!" or anything equally cour- 
teous. Brandishing his gun, he performed a clumsy war-dance 
and screamed vitriolic remarks.
Concentrating on his driving to the exclusion of all else, 
Leeming went full tilt around the spaceport's concrete perim- 
eter toward where the ships were parked. A bunch of lizard-
skinned characters strolling along his path scattered and ran
for their lives. Farther on a long, low, motorized trolley load- 
ed with fuel cylinders slid out of a shed, stopped in the mid- 
dle of the road. Its driver threw himself off his seat as the 
truck wildly swerved around him and threatened to overturn.
Picking the most distant ship as the one it would take the 
enemy longest to reach, Leeming braked by its tail-fins, 
jumped out the cab, looked up. No ladder. Sprinting around 
the base, he found the ladder on the other side, went up it 
like a frightened monkey.
It was like climbing the side of a factory chimney. Halfway 
up he paused for breath, looked around. Diminished by dis- 
tance and depth, a hundred figures were racing toward him. 
So also were four trucks and a thing resembling an armored 
car. He resumed his climb, going as fast as he could but using 
great care because he was now so high that one slip would be 
fatal.
Anxiety increased as he neared the airlock at top. A few 
more seconds and he'd be out of shooting range. But they'd 
know that too, and were liable to start popping at him while 
there was still time. As he tried to make more speed his belly 
quirked at the thought of a last-moment bullet plowing 
through him. His hands grabbed half a dozen rungs in quick 
succession, reached the airlock rim at which point he rammed 
his head against an unexpected metal rod. Surprised, he raised 
his gaze, found himself looking straight into the muzzle of a 
gun.
"Shatsi!" ordered the owner of the gun, making a down- 
ward motion with it. "Amash!"
For a mad moment Leeming thought of holding on with 
one hand while he snatched his opponent's feet with the 
other. He raised himself in readiness to grab. Either the fel- 
low was impatient or read his intention because he hammered 
Leeming's fingers with the gun barrel.
"Amash! Shatsi-amash!"
Leeming went slowly and reluctantly down the ladder. 
Black despair grew blacker with every step he descended. To 
be caught at the start of a chase was one thing; to be grabbed 
near the end of it, within reach of success, was something 
else. Hell's bells, he'd almost got away with it and that's 
what made the situation so bitter.
Hereafter they'd fasten him up twice as tightly and keep 
a doubly close watch upon him. Even if in spite of these pre- 
cautions he broke free a second time, his chances of total escape 
would be too small to be worth considering; with an armed 
guard aboard every ship he'd be sticking his head in the trap 
whenever he shoved it into an air lock. By the looks of it he 
was stuck with this stinking world until such time as a Terran 
task-force captured it or the war ended, either of which events 
might take place a couple of centuries hence.
Reaching the bottom, he stepped onto concrete and turned 
around expecting to be given a kick in the stomach or a bust 
on the nose. Instead he found himself faced by a muttering 
but blank-faced group containing an officer whose attitude 
suggested that he was more baffled than enraged. Favoring 
Leeming with an unblinking stare, the officer let go a stream 
of incomprehensible gabble that ended on a note of querry. 
Leeming spread his hands and shrugged.
The officer tried again. Leeming responded with another 
shrug and did his best to look contrite. Accepting this lack of 
understanding as something that proved nothing one way or 
the other, the officer bawled at the crowd. Four armed guards 
emerged from the mob, hustled the prisoner into the armored 
car, slammed and locked the door and took him away.
At the end of the ride they shoved him into the back room 
of a rock house with two guards for company, the other two 
outside the door. Sitting on a low, hard chair, he sighed, 
gazed blankly at the wall for two hours. The guards also 
squatted, watched him as expressionlessly as a pair of snakes 
and said not a word.
At the end of that time a trooper brought food and water. 
Leeming gulped it down in silence, studied the wall for an- 
other two hours. Meanwhile his thoughts milled around. It 
seemed pretty obvious, he decided, that the local gang had 
not realized that they'd caught a Terran. All their reactions
showed that they were far from certain what they'd got. 
To a certain extent this was excusable. On the Allied side 
of the battle was a federation of thirteen lifeforms, four of 
them human and three very humanlike. The Combine con- 
sisted of an uneasy, precarious union of at least twenty life- 
forms, three of which also were rather humanlike. Pending 
word from higher authority, this particular bunch of quasi-
reptilians couldn't tell enemy from ally.
All the same, they were taking no chances and he could 
imagine what was going on while they kept him sitting on his 
butt. The officer would grab the telephone - or whatever they 
used in lieu - and call the nearest garrison town. The highest 
ranker there would promptly transfer responsibility to mili- 
tary headquarters. There, Klavith's alarm would have been 
filed and forgotten and a ten-star panjandrum would pass the 
query to the main beam-station. An operator would transmit 
a message asking the three humanlike allies whether they had 
lost track of a scout in this region. 
When back came a signal saying, "No!" the local gang 
would realize that a rare bird had been caught deep within 
the spatial empire. They wouldn't like it. Holding-troops far 
behind the lines share all the glory and none of the grief, and 
they're happy to let things stay that way. A sudden intrusion 
of the enemy where he has no right to be is an event disturb- 
ing to the even tenor of life, and not to be greeted with 
cries of martial joy. Besides, from their viewpoint where one
can sneak in an army can follow, and it is disconcerting to 
be taken in force from the rear.
Then, when the news got around, Klavith would arrive at 
full gallop to remind everyone that this was not the first time 
Leeming had been captured, but the second. What would 
they do to him eventually? He was far from sure because 
previously he hadn't given them time to settle down to the 
job. It was most unlikely that they'd shoot him right off. If 
sufficiently civilized they'd cross-examine him and then im- 
prison him for the duration. If uncivilized they'd dig up 
Klavith or maybe an ally able to talk Terran and milk the 
prisoner of every item of information he possessed by meth- 
ods ruthless and bloody.
Back toward the dawn of history, when conflicts had been 
confined to one planet, there had existed a protective device 
known as the Geneva Convention. It had organized neutral 
inspection of prison camps, brought occasional letters from 
home, provided food parcels that had kept alive many a cap- 
tive who otherwise might have died.
There was nothing like that today. A prisoner had only two 
forms of protection, those being his own resources and the 
power of his side to retaliate against the prisoners they'd got. 
And the latter was a threat more potential than real. There 
cannot be retaliation without actual knowledge of maltreat- 
ment.
The day dragged on. The guards were changed twice. 
More food and water came. Eventually the one window 
showed that darkness was approaching. Eying the window 
furtively, Leeming decided that it would be suicidal to take a 
running jump at it under two guns. It was small and high, 
difficult to scramble through in a hurry. How he wished he 
had his stink-gun now!
A prisoner's first duty is to escape. That means biding his 
time with appalling patience until there occurs an opportunity 
that may be seized and exploited to the utmost. He'd done 
it once and he must do it again. If no way of total escape 
existed, he'd have to invent one.
The prospect before him was tough indeed; before long it
was likely to become a good deal tougher. If only he'd been 
able to talk the local language, or any Combine language, 
he might have been able to convince even the linguistic Klav- 
ith that black was white. Sheer impudence can pay dividends. 
Maybe he could have landed his ship, persuaded them with 
smooth words, unlimited self-assurance and just the right 
touch of arrogance, to repair and reline his propulsors and 
cheer him on his way, never suspecting that they had been 
talked into providing aid and comfort for the enemy.
It was a beautiful dream but an idle one. Lack of ability 
to communicate in any Combine tongue had balled up such 
a scheme at the start. You can't hoodwink a sucker into do-
nating his pants merely by making noises at him. Some other 
chance must now be watched for and grabbed, swiftly and 
with both hands - provided they were fools enough to permit 
a chance. 
Weighing up his guards in the same way as he had esti- 
mated the officer, his earlier captors and Klavith, he didn't 
think that this species was numbered among the Combine's 
brightest brains. All the same they were broad in the back, 
sour in the puss, and plenty good enough to put someone in 
the poky and keep him there for a long, long time.
In fact they were naturals as prison wardens.

He remained in the house four days, eating and drinking 
at regular intervals, sleeping halfway through the lengthy 
nights, cogitating for hours and often glowering at his im- 
passive guards. Mentally he concocted, examined, and rejected 
a thousand ways of regaining his liberty, most of them spec- 
tacular, fantastic, and impossible.
At one time he went so far as to try to stare the guards into 
a hypnotic trance, gazing intently at them until his own eye- 
balls felt locked for keeps. It did not bother them in the 
least. They had the reptilian ability to remain motionless and 
outstare him until kingdom come.
Mid-morning of the fourth day the officer strutted in, 
yelled, 
"Amash! Amash!" and gestured toward the door. His 
tone and manner were decidedly unfriendly. Evidently some-
one had identified the prisoner as an Allied space-louse.
Getting off his seat Leeming walked out, two guards ahead, 
two behind, the officer in the rear. A box-bodied steel car 
waited on the road. They urged him into it, locked it. A pair 
of guards stood on the rear platform hard against the doors 
and clung to handrails. A third joined the driver at the front. 
The journey took thirteen hours, the whole of which the 
inmate spent bouncing around in complete darkness.
By the time the car halted Leeming had invented one new 
and exceedingly repulsive word. He used it immediately the 
rear doors opened.
"Quilpole-enk?" he growled. "Enk?"
"Amash!" bawled the guard, unappreciative of alien contri- 
butions to the vocabulary of invective. He gave the other a 
powerful shove.
With poor grace Leeming amashed. He glimpsed great 
walls rearing against the night and a zone of brilliant light 
high up; then he was pushed through a metal portal and 
into a large room. Here a reception committee of six thug-like 
samples awaited him. One of the six signed a paper presented 
by the escort. The guards withdrew, the door closed, the six 
eyed the arrival with complete lack of amiability.
One of them said something in an authoritative voice and 
made motions indicative of undressing.
Leeming called him a smelly quilpole conceived in an 
alien marsh. 
It did him no good. The six grabbed him, stripped him 
naked, searched every vestige of his clothing, paying special 
attention to seams and linings. They displayed the expert
technique of ones who'd done this job countless times already, 
and knew exactly where to look and what to look for. None 
showed the slightest interest in his alien physique despite 
that he was posing fully revealed in the raw.
Everything he possessed was put on one side and his 
clothes shied back at him. He dressed himself while they 
pawed through the loot and gabbled together. Satisfied that 
the captive now owned nothing more than was necessary to 
hide his shame, they led him through the farther door, up a
flight of thick stone stairs, along a stone corridor and into a 
cell. The door slammed with a sound like that of the crack of 
doom.
In the dark of night eight small stars and one tiny moon 
shone through a heavily barred opening high up in one wall. 
Along the bottom of the gap shone a faint yellow glow from 
some outside illumination.
Fumbling around in the gloom he found a wooden bench 
against one wall. It moved when he lugged it. Dragging it 
beneath the opening he stood upon it but found himself a 
couple of feet too low to get a view outside. Though heavy, 
he struggled with it until he had it propped at an angle 
against the wall, then he crawled carefully up it and had a 
look between the bars.
Forty feet below lay a bare, stone-floored space fifty 
yards wide and extending as far as he could see to the right 
and left. Beyond the space a smooth-surfaced stone wall rose 
to his own level. The top of the wall angled at about sixty 
degrees to form a sharp apex, ten inches above which ran a 
single line of taut wires, without barbs.
From somewhere beyond his range of vision poured pow- 
erful beams of light that flooded the entire area between cell- 
block and outer wall, as well as a similarly wide space beyond 
the wall. There was no sign of life. There was only the wall, 
the flares of light, the overhanging night and the distant stars.
"So I'm in the jug," he said. "That really fixes things!"
He jumped to the floor and the slight thrust made the 
bench fall with a resounding crash. It sounded as if he had 
produced a rocket and let himself be whisked through the 
roof. Feet raced along the outside passage, light poured 
through a suddenly opened spy-hole in the heavy metal door. 
An eye appeared in the hole.
"Sach invigia, faplap!" shouted the guard.
Leeming called him a flat-footed, duck-assed quilpole and 
added six more words, older, time-worn, but still potent. The 
spy-hole slammed shut. He lay on the hard bench and tried 
to sleep.
An hour later he kicked hell out of the door and when the 
spy-hole opened he said, "Faplap yourself!"
After that he slept.

Breakfast consisted of one lukewarm bowl of stewed grain 
resembling millet and a mug of water. Both were served with 
disdain and eaten with disgust. It wasn't as good as the alien 
muck on which he had lived in the forest. But of course he 
hadn't been on convict's rations then; he'd been eating the 
meals of some unlucky helicopter crew.
Sometime later a thin-lipped specimen arrived in company 
with two guards. With a long series of complicated gestures 
this character explained that the prisoner was to learn a civil- 
ized language and, what was more, would learn it fast - or 
else. Education would commence forthwith. 
Puzzled by the necessity, Leeming asked, "What about Major 
Klavith?"
"Snapnose?"
"Why can't Klavith do the talking? Has he been struck 
dumb or something?"
A light dawned upon the other. Making stabbing motions 
with his forefinger, he said, "Klavith - fat, fat, fat!"
"Huh?"
"Klavith - fat, fat, fat!" He tapped his chest several times, 
pretended to crumple to the floor and succeeded in conveying 
that Klavith had expired with official assistance.
"Holy cow!" said Leeming.
In businesslike manner the tutor produced a stack of juve- 
nile picture books and started the imparting process while the 
guards lounged against the wall and looked bored. Leeming 
cooperated as one does with the enemy, namely, by misunder- 
standing everything, mispronouncing everything, and over- 
looking nothing that would prove him a linguistic moron.
The lesson ended at noon and was celebrated by the arrival 
of another bowl of gruel containing a hunk of stringy, rub- 
bery substance resembling the hind end of a rat. He drank 
the gruel, sucked the portion of animal, shoved the bowl 
aside.
Then he pondered the significance of their decision to teach 
him how to talk. In bumping off the unfortunate Klavith they 
had become the victims of their own ruthlessness. They'd de- 
prived themselves of the world's only speaker of Cosmoglotta. 
Probably they had a few others who could speak it stationed 
on allied worlds, but it would take time and trouble to bring 
one of those back here. Someone had blundered by ordering 
Klavith's execution; he was going to cover up the mistake by 
teaching the prisoner to squeal.
Evidently they had nothing resembling Earth's electronic 
brain-priers and could extract information only by question- 
and-answer methods aided by unknown forms of persuasion. 
They wanted to know things and intended to learn them if 
possible. The slower he was in gaining fluency the longer it 
would be before they put him on the rack, if that was their 
intention.
His speculations ended when the guards opened the door 
and ordered him out. Leading him along the corridor, down 
the stairs, they released him into a great yard filled with 
figures mooching aimlessly around under a bright sun. He 
halted in surprise.
Rigellians! About two thousands of them. These were allies, 
fighting friends of Terra. He looked them over with mounting 
excitement, seeking a few more familiar shapes amid the mob. 
Perhaps an Earthman or two. Or even a few humanlike Cen- 
taurians.
But there were none. Only rubber-limbed, pop-eyed Rigel- 
lians shuffling around in the dreary manner of those con- 
fronted with many wasted years and no perceivable future.
Even as he gazed at them he sensed something peculiar. 
They could see him as clearly as he could see them and, being 
the only Earthman, he was a legitimate object of attention, a 
friend from another star. They should have been crowding 
up to him, full of talk, seeking the latest news of the war, 
asking questions and offering information.
It wasn't like that at all. They took no notice of him, be- 
haved as if the arrival of a Terran were of no consequence 
whatever. Slowly and deliberately he walked across the
yard, inviting some sort of fraternal reaction. They got out of 
his way. A few eyed him furtively, the majority pretended to 
be unaware of his existence. Nobody offered a word of com- 
fort. Obviously they were giving him the conspicuous brush- 
off.
He trapped a small group of them in a corner of the yard 
and demanded with ill-concealed irritation, "Any of you 
speak Terran?"
They looked at the sky, the wall, the ground, or at each 
other, and remained silent.
"Anyone know Centaurian?" 
No answer.
"Well, how about Cosmoglotta?" 
No reply.
Riled, he walked away and tried another bunch. No luck. 
Within an hour he had fired questions at two or three hun- 
dred without getting a single response. It puzzled him com- 
pletely. Their manner was not contemptuous or hostile but 
something else. He tried to analyze it, came to the conclusion 
that for an unknown reason they were wary, they were afraid 
to speak to him.
Sitting on a stone step he watched them until a shrill 
whistle signaled that exercise time was over. The Rigellians 
formed up in long lines in readiness to march back to their 
quarters. Leeming's guards gave him a kick in the pants and 
dragged him to his cell.
Temporarily he dismissed the problem of unsociable allies. 
After dark was the time for thinking because then there was 
nothing else to do. He wanted to spend the remaining hours 
of daylight in studying the picture books and getting well 
ahead with the local lingo while appearing to lag far behind. 
Fluency might prove an advantage someday. Too bad that 
he had never learned Rigellian, for instance.
So he applied himself fully to tbe task until print and 
pictures ceased to be visible. He ate his evening portion of 
mush after which he lay on the bench, closed his eyes, set his 
mind to work.
In all of his hectic life he'd met no more than twenty Ri-
gellians. Never once had he visited their three closely 
bunched solar systems. What little he knew of them was hear- 
say evidence. It was said that their standard of intelligence 
was high, they were technologically efficient, they had been 
consistently friendly toward men of Earth since first contact 
nearly a thousand years ago. Fifty percent of them spoke 
Cosmoglotta and about one percent knew the Terran tongue.
Therefore, if the average held up, several hundred of those 
met in the yard should have been able to converse with him 
in one language or another. Why had they steered clear of 
him and maintained silence? And why had they been mighty 
unanimous about it?
Determined to solve this puzzle, he invented, examined and 
discarded a dozen theories, all with sufficient flaws to strain 
the credulity. It was about two hours before he hit upon the 
obvious solution.
These Rigellians were prisoners deprived of liberty for 
an unknown number of years to come. Some of them must 
have seen an Earthman at one time or another. But all of 
them knew that in the Combine's ranks were a few species 
superficially humanlike. They couldn't swear to it that he 
really was a Terran and they were taking no chances on him 
being a spy, an ear of the enemy planted among them to 
listen for plots.
That in turn meant something else: when a big mob of 
prisoners become excessively suspicious of a possible traitor 
in their midst, it's because they have something to hide. Yes, 
that was it! He slapped his knee in delight. The Rigellians 
had an escape scheme in process of hatching and meanwhile 
were taking no chances.
They had been here plenty long enough to become at least 
bored, at most desperate, and seek the means to make a 
break. Having found a way out, or being in the process of 
making one, they were refusing to take the risk of letting the 
plot be messed up by a stranger of doubtful origin. Now his 
problem was that of how to overcome their suspicions, gain 
their confidence and get himself included in whatever was 
afoot. To this he gave considerable thought.
Next day, at the end of exercise time, a guard swung a 
heavy leg and administered the usual kick. Leeming promptly 
hauled off and punched him clean on the snout. Four guards 
jumped in and gave the culprit a thorough going over. They 
did it good and proper, with zest and effectiveness that no 
onlooking Rigellian could possibly mistake for a piece of dra- 
matic play-acting. It was an object lesson and intended as 
such. The limp body was taken out of the yard and lugged 
upstairs, its face a mess of blood.


VII

IT WAS a week before Leeming was fit enough to reappear in 
the yard. The price of confidence had proved rough, tough 
and heavy, and his features were still an ugly sight. He 
strolled through the crowd, ignored as before, chose a soft 
spot in the sun and sat.
Soon afterward a prisoner sprawled tiredly on the ground 
a couple of yards away, watched distant guards and spoke
in little more than a whisper. 
"Where do YOU come from?" 
"Terra." 
"How'd you get here?"
Leeming told him briefly.
"How's the war going?"
"We're pushing them back slowly but surely. But it'll take
a long time to finish the job." 
"How long do you suppose?"
"I don't know. It's anyone's guess." Leeming eyed him,
curiously. "What brought your bunch here?'"
"We're not combatants but civilian colonists. Our govern- 
ment placed advance parties, all male, on four new planets 
that were ours by right of discovery. Twelve thousand of us 
altogether." The Rigellian paused while he looked carefully 
around, noted the positions of various guards. "The Combine 
descended on us in force. That was two years ago. It was 
easy; we weren't prepared for trouble, weren't adequately 
armed, didn't even know that a war was on."
"They grabbed your four planets?"
"You bet they did. And laughed in our faces."
Leeming nodded understandingly. Cynical and ruthless 
claim-jumping had been the original cause of the fracas now 
extending across a great slice of the galaxy. On one planet a 
colony had put up a heroic resistance and died to the last 
man. The sacrifice had fired a blaze of fury, the Allies had 
struck back and were still striking good and hard.
"Twelve thousand, you said. Where are the others?"
"Scattered around in prisons like this one. You certainly
picked a choice dump on which to sit out the war. The 
Combine has made this its chief penal planet. It's far from 
the fighting front, unlikely ever to be discovered. The local 
lifeform isn't much good for space-battles but plenty good 
enough to hold what its allies have captured. They're throw- 
ing up big jails all over the world. If the war goes on long 
enough, this cosmic dump will become solid with prisoners."
"So your crowd has been here about two years?" 
"Sure have - and it seems more like ten."
"And done nothing about it?"
"Nothing much," agreed the Rigellian. "Just enough to get 
forty of us shot for trying."
"Sorry," said Leeming sincerely.
"Don't let it bother you. I know exactly how you feel. The 
first few weeks are the worst. The idea of being pinned down 
for keeps can drive you crazy unless you learn to be philo- 
sophical about it." He mused awhile, indicated a heavily built 
guard patrolling by the farther wall. "A few days ago that ly- 
ing swine boasted that already there are two hundred thou- 
sand Allied prisoners on this planet and added that by this 
time next year there would be two millions. I hope he never 
lives to see it."
"I'm getting out of here," said Leeming. 
"How?"
"I don't know yet. But I'm getting out. I'm not going to 
stay here and rot." He waited in the hope of some comment 
about others feeling the same way, perhaps evasive mention 
of a coming break, a hint that he might be invited to join in.
Standing up, the Rigellian murmured, "Well, I wish you 
luck. You'll need all you can get."
He ambled away, having betrayed nothing. A whistle blew, 
the guards shouted, "Merse, faplaps! Amash!" And that was 
that.
Over the next four weeks he had frequent conversations 
with the same Rigellian and about twenty others, picking up 
odd items of information but finding them peculiarly evasive 
whenever the subject of freedom came up. They were friend- 
ly, in fact cordial, but remained determinedly tight-mouthed.
One day he was having a surreptitious chat and asked, 
"Why does everyone insist on talking to me secretively and 
in whispers? The guards don't seem to care how much you
gab to one another."
"You haven't yet been cross-examined. If in the meantime 
they notice that we've had plenty to say to you, they will try 
to force out of you everything we've said - with particular 
reference to ideas on escape."
Leeming immediately pounced upon the lovely word. "Ah, 
escape, that's all there is to live for right now. If anyone is 
thinking of making a bid maybe I can help them and they 
can help me. I'm a competent space-pilot and that fact is 
worth something."
The other cooled at once. "Nothing doing." 
"Why not?"
"We've been behind walls a long time and have been 
taught many things that you've yet to learn."
"Such as?"
"We've discovered at bitter cost that escape attempts fail 
when too many know what's going on. Some planted spy be- 
trays us. Or some selfish fool messes things up by pushing 
in at the wrong moment."
"I am neither a spy nor a fool. I'm certainly not stupid 
enough to spoil my own chance of breaking free."
"That may be," the Rigellian conceded. "But imprisonment 
creates its own especial conventions. One firm rule we have 
established here is that an escape-plot is the exclusive prop- 
erty of those who concocted it and only they can make the
attempt by that method. Nobody else is told about it. Secrecy 
is a protective screen that would-be escapers must maintain 
at all costs. They'll give nobody a momentary peek through 
it, not even a Terran and not even a qualified space-pilot."
"So I'm strictly on my own?"
"Afraid so. You're on your own in any case. We sleep in 
dormitories, fifty to a room. You're in a cell all by yourself. 
You're in no position to help with anything."
"I can damned well help myself," Leeming retorted angrily. 
And it was his turn to walk away.

He'd been in the poky just thirteen weeks when the tutor 
handed him a metaphorical firecracker. Finishing a session 
distinguished only by Leeming's dopiness and slowness to 
learn, the tutor scowled at him and gave forth to some point.
"You are pleased to wear the cloak of idiocy. But am I an 
idiot too? I do not think so! I am not deceived - you are far 
more fluent than you pretend. In seven days' time I shall re- 
port to the Commandant that you are ready for examination."
"How's that again?" asked Leeming, putting on a baffled
frown. 
"You will be questioned by the Commandant seven days 
hence,"
"I have already been questioned by Major Klavith,"
"That was verbal. Klavith is dead and we have no record 
of what you told him."
Slam went the door. In came the gruel and a jaundiced 
lump of something unchewable. The local catering depart- 
ment seemed to be obsessed by the edibility of rat's buttocks. 
Exercise time followed.
"I've been told they're going to put me through the mill a 
week from now."
"Don't let them scare you," advised the Rigellian. "They 
would as soon kill you as spit in the sink. But one thing 
keeps them in check,"
"What's that?"
"The Allies are holding a stack of prisoners too."
"Yes, but what they don't know they can't grieve over."
"There'll be more than grief for the entire Zangastan spe- 
cies if the victor finds himself expected to exchange very live 
prisoners for very dead corpses."
"You've made a point there," agreed Leeming. "Maybe it 
would help if I had nine feet of rope to dangle suggestively 
in front of the Commandant."
"It would help if I had a very large bottle of vitz and a 
shapely female to stroke my hair," sighed the Rigellian.
"If you can feel that way after two years of semi-starva- 
tion, what are you like on a full diet?"
"It's all in the mind," the Rigellian said. "I like to think 
of what might have been."
The whistle again. More intensive study while daylight 
lasted. Another bowl of ersatz porridge. Darkness and a few 
small stars peeping through the barred slot high up. Time 
seemed to be standing still, as it does with a high wall around 
it.
He lay on the bench and produced thoughts like bubbles 
from a fountain. No place, positively no place is absolutely 
impregnable. Given brawn and brains, time and patience, 
there's always a way in or out. Escapees shot down as they 
bolted had chosen the wrong time and wrong place, or the 
right time but the wrong place, or the right place but the 
wrong time. Or they had neglected brawn in favor of brains, 
a common fault of the overcautious. Or they'd neglected 
brains in favor of brawn, a fault of the reckless.
With eyes closed he carefully reviewed the situation. He 
was in a cell with rock walls of granite hardness at least 
four feet thick. The only openings were a narrow gap blocked 
by five massive steel bars, and an armor-plated door in con- 
stant view of patrolling guards.
On his person he had no hacksaw, not lock-pick, no imple- 
ment of any sort, nothing but the bedraggled clothes in 
which he reposed. If he pulled the bench to pieces and some- 
how succeeded in doing it unheard, he'd acquire several large 
lumps of wood, a dozen six-inch nails and a couple of steel 
bolts. None of that junk would serve to open the door or cut 
the window bars. And there was no other material available.
Outside stretched a brilliantly illuminated gap fifty yards 
wide that must be crossed to gain freedom. Then came a 
smooth stone wall forty feet high, devoid of handholds. Atop 
the wall was an apex much too sharp to give grip to the feet, 
and an alarm-wire that would set the sirens going if either 
touched or cut.
The great wall completely encircled the entire prison. It 
was octagonal in shape and topped at each angle by a watch- 
tower containing guards, floodlights and guns. To get out, 
the wall would have to be surmounted right under the noses 
of itchy-fingered watchers, in bright light, without touching 
the wire. That wouldn't be the end of it either; beyond the 
wall was another illuminated area also to be crossed. An un- 
lucky last-lapper could get over the wall by some kind of 
miracle only to be shot to bloody shreds during his subse- 
quent dash for darkness.
Yes, the whole setup had the professional touch of those 
who knew what to do to keep prisoners in prison. Escape 
over the wall was well-nigh impossible, though not complete- 
ly so. If somebody got out of his cell or dormitory armed 
with a rope and grapnel, and if he had a daring confederate 
who'd break into the power room and switch off everything at 
exactly the right moment, he might make it. Up the wall 
and over the dead, unresponsive alarm-wire in total darkness.
In a solitary cell there is no rope, no grapnel, nothing ca- 
pable of being adapted as either. There is no desperate and 
trustworthy confederate. And even if these things had been 
available, he'd have considered such a project as near-sui- 
cidal.
If he pondered once the most remote possibilities and took 
stock of the minimum resources needed, he pondered them a 
hundred times. By long after midnight he'd been beating his 
brains sufficiently hard to make them come up with anything, 
including ideas that were slightly mad.
For example: he could pull a plastic button from his jack- 
et, swallow it, and hope that the result would get him a trans- 
fer to hospital. True, the hospital was within the prison's 
confines but it might offer better opportunity to escape. Then
he thought a second time, decided that an intestinal blockage 
would not guarantee his removal elsewhere. They might do 
no more than force a powerful purgative down the neck and 
thus add to his present discomforts.
As dawn broke he arrived at a final conclusion. Forty or 
fifty Rigellians working in a patient, determined group might 
tunnel under the wall and both illuminated areas and get 
away. But he had one resource and one only. That was guile. 
There was nothing else he could employ.
He let go a loud groan and complained to himself, "So 
I'll have to use both my heads!"
This inane remark percolated through the innermost re- 
cesses of his mind and began to ferment like yeast. After a 
while he sat up startled, gazed at what little he could see of 
the brightening sky, and said in tone approaching a yelp, 
"Yes, sure, that's it - both heads!"

Stewing the idea over and over again, Leeming decided 
that it was essential to have a gadget. A crucifix or a crystal 
ball provides psychological advantages too good to miss. His 
gadget could be of any shape, size or design, made of any 
material as long as it was visibly and undeniably a contrap- 
tion. Moreover, its potency would be greater if not made 
from items obtainable within his cell such as parts of his 
clothing or pieces of the bench. Preferably it should be con- 
structed of stuff from somewhere else and should convey the 
irresistible suggestion of a strange, unknown technology.
He doubted whether the Rigellians could help. Twelve 
hours per day they slaved in the prison's workshops, a fate 
that he would share after he'd been questioned and his apti- 
tudes defined. The Rigellians made military pants and jackets, 
harness and boots, a small range of light engineering and 
electrical components. They detested producing for the ene- 
my but their choice was a simple one: work or starve.
According to what he'd been told they hadn't the remotest 
chance of smuggling out of the workshops anything really 
useful, such as a knife, chisel, hammer or hacksaw blade. At 
the end of each work period the slaves were paraded and
none allowed to break ranks until every machine had been 
checked, every loose tool accounted for and locked away.
The first fifteen minutes of the midday break he spent 
searching the yard for any loose item that might somehow 
be turned to advantage. He wandered around with his gaze 
fixed on the ground like a worried kid seeking a lost coin. 
The only things he found were a couple of pieces of wood 
four inches square by one inch thick and these he slipped into 
his pocket without having the vaguest notion of what he in- 
tended to do with them.
Finishing the hunt, he squatted by the wall, had a whis- 
pered chat with a couple of Rigellians. His mind wasn't on 
the conversation and the pair mooched off when a curious 
guard came near. Later another Rigellian edged up to him.
"Earthman, are you still going to get out of here?" 
"You bet I am!"
The other chuckled and scratched an ear, an action that 
his species used to express polite scepticism. "I think we've
a better chance than you're ever likely to get." 
Leeming shot him a sharp glance. "Why?"
"There are more of us and we're together," evaded the 
Rigellian as though realizing that he'd been on the point of 
saying too much. "What can you do on your own?"
Just then he noticed the ring on the others ear-scratching 
finger and became fascinated by it. He'd seen the modest 
ornament before. A number of Rigellians were wearing simi- 
lar objects. So were some of the guards. These rings were 
neat affairs consisting of four or five turns of thin wire with 
the ends shaped and soldered to form the owner's initials.
"Where'd you dig up the jewelry?" he asked. 
"Where did I get what?" 
"The ring."
"Oh, that." Lowering his hand, the Rigellian studied the
ring with satisfaction. "We make them ourselves in the work- 
shops. It breaks the monotony." 
"Mean to say the guards don't stop youP"
"They don't interfere. There's no harm in it. Besides, we've
made quite a few for the guards themselves. We've made
them some automatic lighters as well and could have turned 
out a lot for ourselves if we'd had any use for them." He 
paused, looked thoughtful and added, "We think the guards 
have been selling rings and lighters outside. At least, we hope 
so."
"Why?"
"Maybe they'll build up a nice steady trade. Then when 
they're comfortably settled in it we'll cut supplies and demand 
a rake-off in the form of extra rations and a few unofficial 
privileges."
"That's a smart idea," approved Leeming. "It would help 
all concerned to have a high-pressure salesman pushing the 
goods in the big towns. How about putting me down for that 
job?"
Giving a faint smile, the Rigellian continued, "Handmade 
junk doesn't matter. But let the guards find that one small 
screwdriver is missing and there's hell to pay. Everyone is 
stripped naked on the spot and the culprit suffers."
"They wouldn't care about losing a small coil of that wire, 
would they?"
"I doubt it. There's plenty of it and they don't bother to 
check the stock. What can anyone do with a piece of wire?"
"Heaven alone knows," Leeming admitted. "But I want 
some all the same."
"Youll never pick a lock with it in a million moons," 
warned the other. "It's too soft and thin."
"I want enough to make a set of Zulu bangles. I sort of 
fancy myself in Zulu bangles."
"And what are those?"
"Never mind. Get me some of that wire - that's all I ask."
"You can steal it yourself in the near future. After you've 
been questioned, they'll send you to the workshops."
"I want it before then. I want it just as soon as I can get 
it. The more the better and the sooner the better."
The Rigellian thought it over, finally said, "If you've a plan 
in your mind keep it to yourself. Don't let slip a hint of it to 
anyone. Open your mouth once too often and somebody will 
beat you to it."
"Thanks for the good advice, friend," said Leeming. "Now
how about a supply of wire?"
"See you this time tomorrow." 
With that, the Rigellian left him, wandered into the
crowd.

At the appointed hour the other was there, passed him 
the loot. "Nobody gave this to you, see? You found it lying in 
the yard. Or you found it hidden in your cell. Or you con- 
jured it out of thin air. But nobody gave it to you."
"Don't worry. I won't involve you in any way. And thanks 
a million."
The wire was a thick, pocket-sized coil of pliable copper. 
When unrolled in the darkness of his cell it measured a little 
more than his own length, or about seven feet.
Leeming doubled it, waggled it to and fro until it broke, 
hid one half under the bottom of the bench. Then he spent
a couple of hours worrying a nail out of the end of the 
bench. It was hard going and it played hob with his fingers
but he persisted until the nail was free.
Finding one of the small squares of wood, he approximated 
its center, stamped the nail halfway into it with the heel of 
his boot. Footsteps sounded along the corridor; he shoved 
the stuff out of sight beneath the bench, lay down just in 
time before the spy-hole opened. The light flashed on, a cold, 
reptilian eye looked in, somebody grunted. The light cut off, 
the spy-hole shut.
Resuming his task, Leeming twisted the nail one way and 
then the other, stamping on it with his boot from time to 
time. The task was tedious but at least it gave him some- 
thing to do. He persevered until he had drilled a neat hole 
two-thirds of the way through the wood.
Next, he took his half-length of wire, broke it into two 
unequal parts, shaped the shorter piece to form a neat loop 
with two legs each three or four inches long. He tried to 
make the loop as near to a perfect circle as possible. The 
longer piece he wound tightly around the loop so that it 
formed a close-fitting coil with legs matching the others.
Propping his bench against the wall, he climbed up to the 
window and examined his handiwork in the glow from out- 
side floodlights, made a few minor adjustments and felt satis- 
fied. He replaced the bench and used the nail to make two 
small nicks on its edge representing the exact diameter of 
the loop. Lastly he counted the number of turns to the coil. 
There were twenty-seven.
It was important to remember these details because in all 
likelihood he would have to make a second gadget as nearly 
identical as possible. That very similarity would help to 
bother the enemy. When a plotter makes two mysterious ob- 
jects which are to all intents and purposes the same, it is 
hard to resist the notion that he knows what he is doing 
and has a sinister purpose.
To complete his preparations he coaxed the nail back into 
the place where it belonged. Sometime he'd need it again 
as a valuable tool. They'd never find it and deprive him of it 
because, to the searcher's mind, anything visibly not disturbed 
is not suspect.
Carefully, he forced the four legs of the coiled loop into 
the hole that he'd drilled, thus making the square of wood 
function as a supporting base. He now had a gadget, a thing- 
umabob, a means to an end. He was the original inventor and 
sole proprietor of the Leeming-Finagle something-or-other.
Certain chemical reactions take place only in the presence 
of a catalyst, like marriages legalized by the presence of an 
official. Some equations can be solved only by the inclusion 
of an unknown quantity called X. If you haven't enough to 
obtain a desired result, you've got to add what's needed. If 
you require outside help that doesn't exist, you must invent 
it.
Whenever Man had found himself unable to master his 
environment with his bare hands, thought Leeming, the said 
environment had been coerced or bullied into submission by 
Man plus X. That had been so since the beginning of time: 
Man plus a tool or a weapon.
But X did not have to be anything concrete or solid, it did 
not have to be lethal or even visible. It could be as intangible
and unprovable as the threat of hellfire or the promise of 
heaven. It could be a dream, an illusion, a great big thunder-
ing lie - just anything.
There was only one positive test: whether it worked.
If it did, it was efficient.
Now to see.

There was no sense in using the Terran language except
perhaps as an incantation when one was necessary. Nobody 
here understood Terran, to them it was just an alien gabble. 
Besides, his delaying tactic of pretending to be slow to learn
the local tongue was no longer effective. They knew that he
could speak it almost as well as they could themselves.
Holding the loop assembly in his left hand, he went to
the door, applied his ear to the closed spy-hole, listened for
the sound of patrolling feet. It was twenty minutes before
heavy boots came clumping toward him.
"Are you there?" he called, not too loudly but enough to
be heard. "Are you there?"
Backing off fast, he lay on his belly on the floor and stood
the loop six inches in front of his face.
"Are you there?"
The spy-hole clicked open, the light came on, a sour eye
looked through.
Completely ignoring the watcher, and behaving with the
air of one far too absorbed in his task to notice that he was
being observed, Leeming spoke through the coiled loop.
"Are you there?"
"What are you doing?" demanded the guard.
Recognizing the other's voice, Leeming decided that for
once luck must be turning his way. This character, a chump
named Marsin, knew enough to point a gun and fire it or, if
unable to do so, yell for help. In all other matters he was
not of the elite. In fact, Marsin would have to think twice
to pass muster as a half-wit.
"What are you doing?" insisted Marsin, raising his voice.
"Calling," said Leeming, apparently just waking up to the
other's existence.
"Calling? Calling what or where?"
"Mind your own quilpole business," Leeming ordered, giv- 
ing a nice display of impatience. Concentrating attention 
upon the loop, he turned it round a couple of degrees. "Are 
you there?"
"It is forbidden," insisted Marsin.
Letting go the loud sigh of one compelled to bear fools 
gladly, Leeming said, "What is forbidden?"
"To call."
"Don't display your ignorance. My species is always al- 
lowed to call. Where would we be if we couldn't, enk?"
That got Marsin badly tangled. He knew nothing about 
Earthmen or what peculiar privileges they considered essen- 
tial to life. Neither could he give a guess as to where they'd 
be without them.
Moreover, he dared not enter the cell and put a stop to 
whatever was going on. An armed guard was strictly prohib- 
ited from going into a cell by himself and that rule had been 
rigid ever since a fed-up Rigellian had slugged one, snatched 
his gun and killed six while trying to make a break.
If he wanted to interfere he'd have to go see the sergeant 
of the guard and demand that something be done to stop 
pink-skinned aliens making noises through loops. The ser- 
geant was an unlovely character with a tendency to shout 
the most intimate details of personal histories all over the 
landscape. It was the witching hour between midnight and 
dawn, a time when the sergeant's liver malfunctioned most 
audibly. And lastly, he, Marsin, had proved himself a misbe- 
gotten faplap far too often.
"You will cease calling and go to sleep," ordered Marsin 
with a touch of desperation, "or in the morning I shall report 
your insubordination to the officer of the day."
"Go ride a camel," Leeming invited. He rotated the loop 
in manner of one making careful adjustment. "Are you there?"
"I have warned you," Marsin persisted, his only visible eye 
popping at the loop.
"Fibble off!" roared Leeming.
Marsin shut the spy-hole and fibbled off.
As was inevitable after being up most of the night, Leem- 
ing overslept. His awakening was abrupt and rude. The door 
burst open with a loud crash and three guards plunged in, 
followed by an officer.
Without ceremony the prisoner was jerked off the bench, 
stripped and shoved into the corridor stark naked. The guards 
then searched thoroughly through the clothing while the 
officer minced around them watching. He was, decided Leem- 
ing, definitely a fairy.
Finding nothing in the clothes they started examining the 
cell. Right off one of them discovered the loop assembly and 
gave it to the officer who held it gingerly as if it were a bou- 
quet suspected of being a bomb.
Another guard trod on the second piece of wood, kicked 
it aside and ignored it. They tapped the floor and walls, seek- 
ing hollow sounds. Dragging the bench away from the wall,
they looked over the other side of it but failed to turn it up- 
side-down and see anything underneath. However, they
handled the bench so much that it got on Leeming's nerves 
and he decided that now was the time to take a walk. He
started along the corridor, a picture of nonchalant nudity.
The officer let go a howl of outrage and pointed. The
guards erupted from the cell, bawled orders to halt. A fourth
guard, attracted by the noise, came round the bend of the 
corridor, aimed his gun threateningly. Leeming turned round
and ambled back.
He stopped as he reached the officer who was now outside
the cell, fuming with temper. Striking a modest pose, he said, 
"Look - September Morn."
It meant nothing to the other who flourished the loop, did
a little dance of rage and yelled, "What is this thing?"
"My property," declared Leeming with naked dignity.
"You are not entitled to possess it. As a prisoner of war
you are not allowed to have anything."
"Who says so?"
"I say so!" informed the fairy somewhat violently.
"Who're you?" asked Leeming, showing no more than aca-
demic interest.
"By the Great Blue Sun, I'11 show you who I am! Guards, 
take him inside and-"
"You're not the boss," interrupted Leeming, impressively 
cocksure. "The Commandant is the boss here. I say so and 
he says so. If you want to dispute it, let's go ask him."
The guards hesitated, assumed expressions of chronic un- 
certainty. They were unanimous in passing the buck to the 
officer. That worthy was taken aback. Staring incredulously 
at the prisoner, he became wary.
"Are you asserting that the Commandant has given per- 
mission for you to have this object?"
"I'm telling you that he hasn't refused permission. Also that 
it is not for you to give it or refuse it. You roll in your own 
hog-pen and don't try to usurp the position of your betters."
"Hog-pen? What is that?" 
"You wouldn't know."
"I shall consult the Commandant about this." Deflated and 
unsure of himself, the officer turned to the guards. "Put him 
back in his cell and give him his breakfast as usual."
"How about returning my property, enk?" Leeming 
prompted.
"Not until I have seen the Commandant."
They hustled him into the cell. He got dressed. Breakfast 
came, the inevitable bowl of slop. He cussed the guards for 
not making it bacon and eggs. A display of self-assurance and 
some aggressiveness was necessary to push the game along.
For some reason the tutor did not appear, so he spent the 
morning furbishing his fluency with the aid of the books. At 
midday they let him into the yard and he could detect no evi- 
dence of a special watch being kept upon him while he min- 
gled with the crowd.
The Rigellian whispered, "I got the opportunity to take 
another coil of wire. So I grabbed it in case you wanted 
more," He slipped it across, saw it vanish into a pocket. 
"That's all I intend to steal. Don't ask me again. One can 
tempt fate too often."
"What's the matter? Is it getting risky? Are they suspicious 
of you?"
"Everything is all right so far." He glanced cautiously 
around. "If some of the other prisoners learn that I'm pinch- 
ing wire they'll start taking it too. They'll snatch it in the 
hope of discovering what I intend to do with it, so that they 
can use it for the same purpose. Two years in prison is two 
years of education in unmitigated selfishness. Everybody is 
always on the watch for some advantage, real or imaginary, 
that he can grab off somebody else. This lousy life brings out 
the worst in us as well as the best."
"I see."
"A couple of small coils will never be missed," the other 
went on. "But once the rush starts the stuff will evaporate in 
wholesale quantities. And that's when all hell will break loose. 
I dare not take the chance of creating a general ruckus."
"Meaning you fellows can't afford to risk a detailed search 
right now?" suggested Leeming pointedly.
The Rigellian shied like a frightened horse. "I didn't say 
that."
"I can put two and two together as expertly as anyone 
else." Leeming favored him with a reassuring wink. "I can 
also keep my mouth shut."
He watched the other mooch away. Then he sought around 
the yard for more pieces of wood but failed to find any. Oh, 
well, no matter. In a pinch he could do without. Come to 
that, he'd darned well have to do without.
The afternoon was given over to linguistic studies on which 
he was able to concentrate without interruption. That was 
one advantage of being in the clink, perhaps the only one. A 
fellow could educate himself. When the light became too poor 
and the first pale stars showed through the barred opening 
in the wall, he kicked the door until the sound of it thun- 
dered all over the block.


VIII

FEET came running and the spy-hole opened. It was Marsin 
again.
"So it's you, faplap," greeted Leeming. He let go a snort
of contempt. "You had to blab, of course. You had to curry 
favor by reporting me to the officer." He drew himself up to 
full height. "Well, I am sorry for you. I'd fifty times rather 
be me than you."
"Sorry for me?" Marsin registered confusion. "Why?" 
"Because you are going to suffer."
"I am?"
"Yes, you! Not immediately, if that is any consolation. First 
of all it is necessary for you to undergo the normal period 
of horrid anticipation. But eventually you are going to suffer. 
I don't expect you to believe me. All you need do is wait 
and see."
"It was my duty," explained Marsin semi-apologetically. 
"That fact will be considered in mitigation," Leeming as-
sured, "and your agonies will be modified in due proportion." 
"I don't understand," complained Marsin, developing a
node of worry somewhere within the solid bone.
"You will - some dire day. So also will those stinking fap- 
laps who beat me up in the yard. You can inform them for 
me that their quota of pain is being arranged."
"I am not supposed to talk to you," said Marsin, dimly per- 
ceiving that the longer he stood by the spy-hole the bigger 
the fix he got into. "I shall have to go."
"All right. But I want something."
"What is it?"
"I want my bopamagilvie - that thing the officer took 
away."
"You cannot have it unless the Commandant gives per- 
mission. He is absent today and will not return before to- 
morrow morning."
"That's no use. I want it now."
"You cannot have it now."
"Forget it." Leeming gave an airy wave of his hand. "I'll 
create another one."
"It is forbidden," reminded Marsin very feebly.
"Ha-ha!" said Leeming.
After darkness had grown complete he got the wire from 
under the bench and manufactured a second loop assembly
to all intents identical with the first one. Twice he was in- 
terrupted but not caught.
That job finished, he upended the bench and climbed it. 
Taking the newly received coil of wire from his pocket, 
he tied one end tightly around the middle bar and hung the 
coil outside the window-gap. With spit and dust he camou- 
flaged the bright copper surface of the one visible strand, 
made sure that it could not be seen at farther than nose-tip- 
distance. He slid down, replaced the bench. The window-gap 
was so high in the wall that all of its ledge and the bottom 
three inches of its bars were invisible from below.
Going to the door he listened and at the right time called, 
"Are you there?"
When the light came on and the spy-hole had opened, he 
got the instinctive feeling that a bunch of them were clus- 
tered outside the door; also that the eye in the hole was not 
Marsin's.
Ignoring everything else, he rotated the loop slowly and 
carefully, meanwhile calling, "Are you there? Are you there?"
After traversing about forty degrees he paused, gave his 
voice a tone of intense satisfaction and exclaimed, "So you 
are there at last! Why don't you keep within easy reach so 
that we can talk without me having to summon you through 
a loop?"
Going silent, he put on the expression of one who listens 
intently. The eye in the spy-hole widened, got shoved away, 
was replaced by another.
"Well," said Leeming, settling himself down for a cosy 
chat, "I'1l point them out to you first chance I get and leave 
you to deal with them as you think fit. Let's switch to our 
own language. There are too many big ears around for my 
liking." Taking a deep breath, he rattled off at tremendous 
speed and without pause, "Out sprang the web and opened 
wide the mirror cracked from side to side the curse has come 
upon me cried the Lady of-"
Out sprang the door and opened wide and two guards al- 
most fell headlong into the cell in their eagerness to make a 
quick snatch. Two more posed outside with the fairy glower-
ing between them. Marsin hovered fearfully in the back- 
ground.
A guard grabbed the loop assembly, yelled, "I've got it!" 
and rushed out. His companion followed at full gallop. Both 
seemed hysterical with excitement. There was a pause of ten 
seconds before the door shut. Leeming exploited the fact. 
Pointing the two middle fingers of one hand at the group, he 
made horizontal stabbing motions toward them. Giving 'em 
the Devil's Horns they'd called it when he was a kid. The 
classic gesture of donating the evil eye.
"There they are," he declaimed dramatically, talking to 
something that nobody else could see. "Those are the scaly- 
skinned bums I've been telling you about. They want trou- 
ble. They like it, they love it, they dote on it. Give them all 
they can take."
The whole bunch managed to look alarmed before the 
door cut them from sight with a vicious slam. Listening at 
the spy-hole he heard them tramp away, muttering steadily 
between themselves.
Within ten minutes he had broken a length off the coil 
hanging from the window bars, restored the spit and dust dis- 
guise of the holding strand. Half an hour later he had another 
neatly made bopamagilvie. Practice was making him expert 
in the swift and accurate manufacture of these things.
Lacking wood for a base he used the loose nail to dig a 
hole in the dirt between the big stone slabs composing the 
floor of his cell. He rammed the legs of the loop into the 
hole, twisted the contraption this way and that to make cere- 
monial rotation easy. Then he booted the door something 
cruel.
When the right moment arrived he lay on his belly and 
commenced reciting through the loop the third paragraph of
Rule 27, Section 9, Subsection B, of Space Regulations. He 
chose it because it was a gem of bureaucratic phraseology, 
a single sentence one thousand words long meaning something 
known only to God.
"Where refueling must be carried out as an emergency 
measure at a station not officially listed as a home-station or
definable for special purposes as a home-station under Sec- 
tion A(5) amendment A(5)B, the said station shall be treated 
as if it were definable as a home-station under Section A(5) 
amendment A(5)B providing that the emergency falls with- 
in the authorized list of technical necessities as given in Sec- 
tion J(29-33), with addenda subsequent thereto as applicable 
to home-stations where such are-"
The spy-hole flipped open and shut. Somebody scooted 
away at top speed. A minute afterward the corridor shook to 
what sounded like a massed cavalry charge. The spy-hole 
again opened and shut. The door crashed inward.
This time they reduced him to his bare pelt, searched his 
clothes, raked the cell from end to end. Their manner was 
that of those singularly lacking in brotherly love. Turning the 
bench upside-down, they tapped it, knocked it, kicked it, did 
everytbing but run a large magnifying glass over it.
Watching this operation, Leeming encouraged them by 
emitting a sinister snigger. There had been a time when he 
could not have produced a sinister snigger even to win a very 
large bet. But he could do it now. The ways in which a man 
can rise to the occasion are without limit.
Giving him a look of sudden death and total destruction, 
a guard went out, staggered back with a heavy ladder, 
mounted it and suspiciously surveyed the window-gap. As an 
intelligent examination it was a dead loss because his mind 
was concerned only with the solidity of the bars. He grasped 
each bar with both hands and shook vigorously. His fingers 
did not touch the thread of wire nor did his eyes detect it. 
Satisfied, he got down and tottered out with the ladder.
The others departed. Leeming dressed himself, listened at 
the spy-hole. Just a very faint hiss of breath and occasional 
rustle of clothes nearby. He sat on the bench and waited. In 
short time the lights blazed on and the spy-hole popped open.
Stabbing two fingers toward the hole, he declaimed, "Die 
faplap!"
The hole snapped shut. Feet moved away, stamping much 
too loudly. He waited. After half an hour of complete silence 
the eye offered itself again and for its pains received another
two-fingered curse. Five minutes later it had yet another be- 
stowed upon it. If it was the same eye all the time, it was 
a glutton for punishment.
This game continued at erratic intervals for four hours 
before the eye had had enough. Leeming immediately made 
another coiled loop, gabbled through it at the top of his 
voice and precipitated another raid. They did not strip him 
and search the cell this time. They contented themselves with 
confiscating the gadget. And they showed symptoms of aggra- 
vation.
There was just enough wire left for one more blood-pres- 
sure booster. He decided to keep it against a future need and 
get some sleep. Inadequate food and not enough slumber 
were combining to make inroads upon his physical reserves.
Flopping full length on the bench, he sighed and closed 
red-rimmed eyes. In due time he started snoring fit to saw 
through the bars. That caused a panic in the passage and 
brought the gang along in another rush.
Wakened by the uproar, he damned them to perdition. 
Then he lay down again. He was plain bone-tired - but so 
were they.

He slept solidly until midday without a break except for 
the usual lousy breakfast. Then came the usual lousy dinner. 
At exercise time they kept him locked in. He hammered and 
kicked on the door, demanded to know why he wasn't being 
allowed to walk in the yard, shouted threats of glandular 
dissection for all and sundry. They took no notice.
So he sat on the bench and thought things over. Perhaps 
this denial of his only measure of freedom was a form of 
retaliation for making them hop around like agitated fleas 
in the middle of the night. Or perhaps the Rigellian was 
under suspicion and they'd decided to prevent contact.
Anyway, he had got the enemy bothered. He was messing 
them about single-handed, far behind the lines. That was 
something. The fact that a combatant is a prisoner doesn't 
mean he's out of the battle. Even behind thick walls he can 
still harass the foe, absorbing his time and energy, under-
mining his morale, pinning down at least a few of his forces.
The next step, he concluded, was to widen and strengthen
the curse. He must do it as comprehensively as possible. The
more he spread it and the more ambiguous the terms in
which he expressed it, the more plausibly he could grab the
credit for any and every misfortune that was certain to occur
sooner or later.
It was the technique of the gypsy's warning. People tend
to attach specific meanings to ambiguities when circum- 
stances arise and shape themselves to give special meanings. 
People don't have to be very credulous, either. It is sufficient 
for them to be made expectant, with a tendency to wonder 
- after the event.
'In the near future a tall, dark man will cross your path.
...'
After which any male above average height, and not a 
blond, fits the picture. And any time from five minutes to five 
years is accepted as the near future.
'Mamma, when the insurance man called he really smiled 
at me. Do you remember what the gypsy said?'
To accomplish anything worthwhile one must adapt to 
one's own environment. If the said environment is radically 
different from everyone else's, the method of accommodat- 
ing to it must be equally different. So far as he knew, he, 
Leeming, was the only Terran in this prison and the only 
prisoner held in solitary confinement. Therefore, his tactics 
could have nothing in common with any schemes the Rigel- 
lians had in mind.
The Rigellians were up to something, no doubt of that. 
They wouldn't be wary and secretive about nothing. It was 
almost a dead-sure bet that they were digging a tunnel. Prob- 
ably a bunch of them were deep in the earth right now, 
scraping and scratching without tools. Removing dirt and 
rock a few pounds at a time. Progress at the rate of a pa- 
thetic two or three inches per night. A constant, never-ending 
risk of discovery, entrapment and perhaps some insane shoot- 
ing. A year-long project that could be terminated in minutes 
with a shout and a chatter of automatic guns.
But to get out of a strong stone cell in a strong stone jail 
one doesn't have to make a desperate and spectacular escape. 
If sufficiently patient, resourceful, glib and cunning, he can 
talk the enemy into opening the doors and pushing him out.
Yes, you can use the wits that God has given you.
By law of probability various things must happen within 
and without the prison, not all of them pleasing to the ene- 
my. Some officer must get the galloping gripes right under 
his belt. Or a guard must fall down a watchtower ladder and 
break a leg. Somebody must lose a wad of money or his 
pants or his senses. Farther afield a bridge must collapse, or 
a train get derailed; or a spaceship crash at take-off. Or 
there'd be an explosion in a munitions factory. Or a military 
leader would drop dead.
He'd be playing a trump card if he could establish his 
claim as the author of most of this trouble. The essential 
thing was to stake it in such a way that they could not effec- 
tively combat it, neither could they exact retribution in a tor- 
ture chamber.
The ideal strategy was to convince the enemy of his 
malevolence in a way that would equally convince them of 
their own impotence. If he succeeded - and it was a big if - 
they would come to the logical conclusion that the only 
method of getting rid of constant trouble would be to get rid 
of Leeming, alive and in one piece.
The question of exactly how to achieve this fantastic result 
was a jumbo problem that would have appalled him back 
home. In fact he'd have declared it impossible, despite the 
basic lesson of space-conquest which is that nothing is im- 
possible. But by now he'd had three lonely months in which 
to incubate a solution - and the brain become wonderfully 
stimulated by grim necessity. It was a good thing that he 
had an idea in mind; he had a mere ten minutes before the 
time came to apply it.
The door opened, a trio of guards scowled at him and one 
of them rasped, "The Commandant wishes to see you at once. 
Amash, faplap!"
Leeming walked out saying, "Once and for all, I am not a
faplap, see?"
The guard booted him in the buttocks.

The Commandant lolled behind a desk with a lower rank- 
ing officer seated on either side. He was a heavily built speci- 
men. His lidless, horn-covered eyes gave him a frigid, un- 
emotional appearance as he studied the prisoner.
Leeming calmly sat himself on a handy chair and the officer 
on the right immediately bellowed, "Stand to attention in the 
presence of the Commandant'"
Making a gesture of contradiction, the Commandant said 
boredly, "Let him sit."
A concession at the start, thought Leeming. Curiously, he 
eyed a wad of papers on the desk. Probably a complete re- 
port of his misdeeds, he guessed. Time would show. Anyway, 
he had one or two weapons with which to counter theirs. It 
would be a pity, for instance, if he couldn't exploit their ig-
norance. The Allies knew nothing about the Zangastans. By 
the same token the Zangastans knew little or nothing about 
several Allied species, Terrans included. In coping with him 
they were coping with an unknown quantity.
And from now on it was a quantity doubled by the addition 
of X.
"I am given to understand that you now speak our lan- 
guage," began the Commandant.
"Not much use denying it," Leeming confessed.
"Very well. You will give us information concerning your-
lf." 
"I have given it already. I gave it to Major Klavith."
"That is no concern of mine. You will answer my questions
and your answers had better be truthful." Positioning an offi-
cial form upon his desk, he held his pen in readiness. "Name
of planet of origin?"
"Earth."
The other wrote it phonetically in his own script, then 
continued, "Name of race?"
"Terran."
"Name of species?"
"Homo nosipaca," said Leeming, keeping his face straight. 
Writing it down, the Commandant looked doubtful, asked,
"What does that mean?"
"Space-traversing Man," Leeming informed.
"Hm!" The other was impressed despite himself. "Your 
personal name?"
"John Leeming."
"John Leeming," repeated the Commandant, putting it 
down.
"And Eustace Phenackertiban," added Leeming airily.
That was written down also, though the Commandant had 
some difficulty in finding suitable hooks and curlicues to ex- 
press Phenackertiban. Twice he asked Leeming to repeat the 
alien cognomen and twice Leeming obliged.
Studying the result, which resembled a Chinese recipe for 
rotten egg gumbo, the Commandant said, "Is it your custom 
to have two sets of names?"
"Most certainly," Leeming assured. "We can't avoid it, see- 
ing that there are two of us."
Twitching the eyebrows he didn't possess, the listener 
showed mild surprise. "You mean that you are always con- 
ceived and born in pairs? Two identical males or females 
every time?"
"No, no, not at all." Leeming adopted the air of one about 
to state the obvious. "Whenever one of us is born he imme- 
diately acquires a Eustace."
"A Eustace?"
"Yes."
The Commandant frowned, picked his teeth, glanced at 
the other officers. If he was seeking inspiration he was out 
of luck; they put on the blank expressions of fellows who've 
come along merely to keep company.
"What," asked the Commandant at long last, "is a Eu- 
stace?"
Gaping at him in open incredulity, Leeming said, "You 
don't know?"
"I am putting the questions. You will provide the answers. 
What is a Eustace?"
"An invisibility that is part of one's self," Leeming in- 
formed him.
Understanding dawned on the Commandant's scaly face. 
"Ah, you mean a soul. You give your soul a separate name?"
"Nothing of the sort. I have a soul of my own and Eustace 
has a soul of his own." He added as an afterthought, "At 
least, I hope we have."
The Commandant lay back in his chair and stared at him. 
There was quite a long silence during which the side officers 
continued to play dummies.
Finally the Commandant admitted, "I do not understand." 
"In that case," announced Leeming, irritatingly triumph-
ant, "it is evident that you have no alien equivalent of Eu- 
staces yourselves. You're all on your own. Just single-lifers. 
That's your hard luck."
Slamming a hand on the desk, the Commandant gave his 
voice a bit more military bark and demanded, "Exactly what 
is a Eustace? Explain to me as clearly as possible!"
"I'm in poor position to refuse the information," Leeming 
conceded with hypocritical reluctance. "Not that it matters 
much. Even if you gain perfect understanding there is noth-
ing you can do about it." 
"That remains to be seen," opined the Commandant, look-
ing bellicose. "Cease evading the issue and tell me all that 
you know about these Eustaces."
"Every Earthling lives a double life from birth to death," 
said Leeming. "He exists in close mental association with an 
entity that always calls himself Eustace something-or-other. 
Mine happens to be Eustace Phenackertiban."
"You can actually see this entity?"
"No, never at any time. I cannot see him, smell him or 
feel him."
"Then how do you know that this is not a racial delu- 
sion?"
"Firstly, because every Terran can hear his own Eustace. 
I can hold long conversations with mine, providing that he
happens to be within reach, and I can hear him speaking 
clearly and logically within the depths of my mind."
"You cannot hear him with the ears?"
"No, only with the mind. The communication is telepathic, 
or to be more accurate, quasi-telepathic."
"I can believe that," informed the Commandant with con- 
siderable sarcasm. "You have been heard talking out loud, 
shouting at the top of your voice. Some telepathy, enk?"
"When I have to boost my thoughts to get range, I can do 
it better by expressing them in words. People do the same 
when they sort out a problem by talking to themselves. 
Haven't you ever talked to yourself?"
"That is no business of yours. What other proof have you 
that a Eustace is not imaginary?"
Taking a deep breath, Leeming went determinedly on, "He 
has the power to do many things after which there is visible 
evidence that those things have been done," He shifted at- 
tention to the absorbed officer sitting on the left, "For ex- 
ample, if my Eustace had a grudge against this officer and ad- 
vised me of his intention to make him fall downstairs, and if 
before long the officer fell downstairs and broke his neck-"
"It could be mere coincidence," the Commandant scoffed. 
"It could," agreed Leeming. "But there can be far too
many coincidences, If a Eustace promises that he is going to 
do forty or fifty things in succession and all of them happen, 
he is either doing them as promised or he is a most astound- 
ing prophet. Eustaces don't claim to be prophets, Nobody 
visible or invisible can foresee the future with such detailed 
accuracy."
"That is true enough."
"Do you accept the fact that you have a father and 
mother?"
"Of course," admitted the Commandant.
"You don't consider it strange or abnormal?" 
"Certainly not. It is inconceivable that one should be born 
without parents."
"Similarly, we accept the fact that we have Eustaces and 
we cannot conceive the possibility of existing without them." 
The Commandant thought it over, said to the right-hand
officer, "This smacks of mutual parasitism. It would be inter-
esting to learn what benefit they derive from each other."
"It's no use asking what my Eustace gets out of me," 
Leeming chipped in. "I can't tell you because I don't know." 
"You expect me to believe that?" asked the Commandant, 
behaving like nobody's fool. He showed his teeth. "On your
own evidence you can talk with him. Why have you never
asked him?"
"We Terrans got tired of asking that question long, long
ago. The subject has been dropped and the situation ac- 
cepted."
"Why?"
"The answer was always the same. Eustaces readily admit
that we are essential to their existence but cannot explain
how because they've no way of making us understand."
"That could be an excuse, a self-preservative evasion," the 
Commandant offered. "They won't tell you because they
don't want you to know."
"Well, what do you suggest we do about it?"
Dodging that one, the Commandant went on, "What bene-
fit do you get out of the association? What good is your
Eustace to you?"
"He provides company, comfort, information, advice and-"
"And what?"
Bending forward, hands on knees, Leeming practically spat
it at him. "If necessary, vengeance!"

That struck home good and hard. The Commandant rocked
back, displaying a mixture of ire and scepticism. The two 
under-officers registered disciplined apprehension. It's a hell
of a war when a man can be chopped down by a ghost.
Pulling himself together, the Commandant forced a grim
smile as he pointed out, "You're a prisoner. You've been un-
der detention a good many days. Your Eustace doesn't seem
to have done much about it." 
"Not yet," agreed Leeming happily.
"What do you mean, not yet?"
"As one free to roam at will on an enemy world he has 
enough top priority jobs to keep him busy for a while. He's 
been doing plenty and he'll do plenty more, in his own time 
and his own way." ,
"Is that so? And what does he intend to do?"
"Wait and see," Leeming advised with formidable confi- 
dence.
That did not fill them with delight.
"Nobody can imprison more than half a Terran," he went 
on. "The solid, visible, tangible half. The other half cannot 
be pinned down by any method whatsoever. It is beyond any- 
one's control. It wanders loose, collecting information of mili- 
tary value, indulging in a little sabotage, doing just as it 
pleases. You've created that situation and you're stuck with
it."
"We created it? We didn't invite you to come here. You 
dumped yourself on us unasked."
"I had no choice about it because I had to make an emer- 
gency landing. This could have been a friendly world. It isn't. 
Who's to blame for that? If you insist on fighting with the 
Combine against the Allies you must accept the consequences 
- including whatever a Eustace sees fit to do."
"Not if we kill you," said the Commandant nastily.
Leeming gave a disdainful laugh. "That would make mat- 
ters fifty times worse."
"In what way?"
"The life span of a Eustace is longer than that of his 
Terran partner. When a man dies his Eustace takes seven to 
ten years to disappear from existence. We have an ancient 
song to the effect that old Eustaces never die, they only fade 
away. Our world holds thousands of lonely, disconnected 
Eustaces gradually fading."
"So?"
"Kill me and you'll isolate my Eustace here with no man 
or other Eustace for company. His days will be numbered 
and he'll know it. He'll have nothing to lose, being no longer 
restricted by considerations of my safety. Because I'1l be
dead, he'll be able to eliminate me from his plans and give
his undivided attention to anything he chooses." He eyed the 
listeners as he finished, "It's a safe bet that he'll run amok 
and create an orgy of destruction. Remember, you're an alien 
lifeform to him. He'll have no feelings or compunctions with 
regard to you."
The Commandant reflected in silence. It was exceedingly 
difficult to believe all this and his prime instinct was to reject 
it lock, stock and barrel. But before space-conquest it had 
been equally difficult to believe things more fantastic but now 
accepted as commonplace. He dare not dismiss it as non- 
sense; the time had long gone by when anyone could afford 
to be dogmatic. The space adventures of all the Combine and 
the Allied species had scarcely scratched one galaxy of an 
unimaginable number composing the universe; none could 
say what incredible secrets were yet to be revealed including, 
perhaps, such etheric entities as Eustaces.
Yes, the stupid believe things because they are credulous - 
or they are credulous because of their stupidity. The intelli- 
gent do not blindly accept but, being aware of their own ig- 
norance, neither do they reject. Right now the Commandant 
was acutely aware of general ignorance concerning this life- 
form known as Terrans. It could be that they were dual crea- 
tions, half-Joe, half-Eustace.
"All this is not impossible," he decided ponderously, "but 
it appears to me somewhat improbable. There are more than 
twenty lifeforms associated with us in the Combine. I do not 
know of one that exists in natural copartnership with an- 
other."
"The Lathians do," contradicted Leeming, mentioning the 
leaders of the opposition, the chief cause of the war.
The Commandant was suitably startled. "You mean they 
have Eustaces,too?"
"No, I don't. They have something similar but inferior. 
Each Lathian is unconsciously controlled by an entity that 
calls itself Willy something-or-other. They don't know it, of 
course. We wouldn't know it if our Eustaces hadn't told us."
"How did they find out?"
"As you know, the biggest battles to date have all been
fought in the Lathian sector. Both sides have taken prisoners. 
Our Eustaces told us that each Lathian prisoner had a con- 
trolling Willy but was blissfully unaware of it." He grinned, 
added, "They made it plain that a Eustace doesn't think 
much of a Willy. Apparently a Willy is a pretty low form of 
associated life."
Frowning, the Commandant said, "This is something defi- 
nite, something we should be able to check for ourselves. But 
how are we going to do it if the Lathians are ignorant of this 
state of affairs?"
"Easy as pie," Leeming offered. "They are holding a bunch 
of Terran prisoners. Get someone to ask those prisoners, sepa- 
rately and individually, whether the Lathians have the Wil-
lies."
"We'll do just that," snapped the Commandant, his manner 
that of one about to call a bluff. He turned to the right-hand 
officer. "Bajashim, beam a signal to our chief liaison officer at 
Lathian H.Q. and order him to question those prisoners."
"You can double-check while you're at it," interjected Leeming, 
"just to clinch it. To us, anyone who shares his life 
with an invisible being is known as a Nut; Ask the prisoners 
whether all the Lathians are Nuts."
"Take note of that and have it asked as well," ordered the 
Commandant. He returned attention to Leeming. "Since you 
could not anticipate your forced landing and capture, and 
since you have been kept in close confinement, there is no 
possibility of collusion between you and Terran prisoners far
away."
"That's right."
"Therefore I shall weigh your evidence in the light of what 
replies come to my signal." He stared hard at the other. "If 
those replies fail to confirm your statements, I'll know 
that you are a shameless liar in some respects and probably a liar 
in all respects. Here, we have special and very effective meth- 
ods of dealing with liars."
"That's to be expected. But if the replies do confirm me, 
you'll know that I've told the truth, won't you?"
"No," said the Commandant savagely.
It was Leeming's turn to be shocked. "Why not?"
Thinning his lips, the Commandant growled, "As I have 
remarked, there cannot possibly have been any direct com- 
munication between you and other Terran prisoners. How- 
ever, that means nothing. There can have been collusion be- 
tween your Eustace and their Eustaces."
Bending sidewise, he jerked open a drawer, placed a loop 
assembly on the desk. Then another and another. A bunch 
of them.
"Well," he invited with malicious triumph, "what have you 
to say to that?"


IX

LEEMING went into something not far from a momentary 
panic. He could see what the other meant. He could talk 
to his Eustace, who in turn could talk to other Eustaces. And 
the other Eustaces could talk to their imprisoned partners.
Get yourself out of that!
He had an agile mind, but after three months of semi-star- 
vation it was tending to lose pace. Lack of adequate nourish- 
ment was telling on him already; his thoughts plodded at the 
very time he wanted them to sprint.
The three behind the desk were waiting for him, watching 
his face, counting the seconds he needed to produce an an- 
swer. The longer he took to find one, the weaker it would be. 
The quicker he came up with something good the more 
plausible it would sound. Cynical satisfaction was creeping 
into their faces and he was inwardly frantic by the time he 
saw an opening and grabbed at it.
"You're wrong on two counts." 
"State them."
"Firstly, one Eustace cannot communicate with another 
over a distance so enormous. His mental output just won't 
reach that far. To talk from world to world he has to have 
the help of a Terran who, in his turn, has radio equipment 
available."
"We've only your word for that," the Commandant re-
minded. "If a Eustace can communicate without limit it 
would be your best policy to conceal the fact. You would be 
a fool to admit it."
"I cannot do more than give you my word regardless of 
whether or not you credit it."
"I do not credit it - yet."
"No Terran task force has rushed to my rescue, as would 
happen had my Eustace told them about me."
"Pfah!" said the Commandant. "It would take them much 
longer to get here than the time you have spent as a prisoner. 
Probably twice as long. And then only if by some miracle 
they managed to avoid being shot to pieces on the way. The 
absence of a rescue party means nothing." He waited for a 
response that did not come, finished, "If you have anything 
else to say, it had better be convincing."
"It is," assured Leeming. "And we don't have my word for 
it. We have yours."
"Nonsense! I have made no statements concerning Eu- 
staces."
"On the contrary, you have said that there could be col- 
lusion between them."
"What of it?" 
"There can be collusion only if Eustaces really exist, in 
which case my evidence is true. But if my evidence is false, 
then Eustaces do not exist and there cannot possibly be a 
conspiracy between non-existent things."
The Commandant sat perfectly still while his face took on 
a faint shade of purple. He 1ooked and felt like the trapper 
trapped. The left-hand officer wore an expression of one 
struggling hard to suppress a disrespectful snicker.
"If," continued Leeming, piling it on for good measure, 
"you do not believe in Eustaces, then you cannot logically 
believe in conspiracy between them. On the other hand, if 
you believe in the possibility of collusion then you've got to 
believe in Eustaces. That is, of course, if you're in your right
mind."
"Guard!" roared the Commandant. He pointed an angry 
finger. "Take him back to his cell." Obediently, they started
hustling the prisoner through the door when he changed his 
mind and bawled, "Halt!" Snatching up a loop assembly, he 
waved it at Leeming. "Where did you get the material with 
which to make this?"
"My Eustace brought it for me. Who else?"
"Get out of my sight!"
"Merse, faplap!" urged the guards, prodding with their 
guns. "Amash! Amash!"

The rest of that day and all the next one he spent sitting 
or lying on the bench, reviewing what had taken place, 
planning his next moves, and, in lighter moments, admiring 
his own ability as a whopping big liar.
Now and again he wondered how his efforts to battle his 
way to freedom with his tongue compared with Rigellian at- 
tempts to do it with bare hands. Who was making the most 
progress? Of greater importance, who, once out, would stay 
out? One thing was certain: his method was less tiring to the 
underfed and weakened body, though more exhausting to the 
nerves.
Another advantage was that for the time being he had 
side-tracked their intention of squeezing him for military 
information. Or had he? Possibly from their viewpoint his 
revelations concerning the dual nature of Terrans were in- 
finitely more important than details of armaments, which 
data might be false anyway. All the same, he had avoided 
for a time what might otherwise have been a rough and pain- 
ful interrogation. By thus postponing the agony he had added 
brilliance to the original gem of wisdom, namely, that baloney 
baffies brains.
Just for the hell of it he bided his time and, when the 
spy-hole opened, let himself be caught in the middle of giving 
grateful thanks to Eustace for some weird service not speci- 
fied. As intended, this got the jumpy Marsin to wondering 
who had arrived at the crossroads and copped some of Eu- 
stace's dirty work. Doubtless, the sergeant of the guard would 
speculate about the same matter before long. And in due
course so would the officers.
Near midnight, with sleep still evading him, it occurred 
to him that there was no point in doing things by halves. If 
a thing is worth doing it is worth doing well - and that ap- 
plies to lying as much as to anything else. Why rest content 
merely to register a knowing smile whenever the enemy suf-
fered a petty misfortune? 
His tactics could be extended much farther than that. No 
form of life was secure from the vagaries of chance. Good 
fortune came along as well as bad, in any part of the cosmos. 
There was no reason why Eustace should not snatch the 
credit for both. No reason why he, Leeming, should not take 
unto himself the implied power to reward as well as to 
punish.
That wasn't the limit, either. Good luck and bad luck are 
positive phases of existence. He could cross the neutral zone 
and confiscate the negative phases. Through Eustace he could 
assign to himself not only the credit for things done, good or 
bad, but also for things not done. In the pauses between 
staking claims to things that happened he could exploit those 
that did not happen.
The itch to make a start right now was irresistible. Rolling 
off the bench, he belted the door from top to bottom. The 
guard had just been changed, for the eye that peered in was 
that of Kolum, a character who had bestowed a kick in the 
rump not so long ago. Kolum was a cut above Marsin, being 
able to count upon all twelve fingers if given sufficient time to
cogitate. 
"So it is you!" said Leeming, showing vast relief. "I am 
very glad of that. I befriended you in the hope that he would 
lay off you, that he would leave you alone for at least a little 
while. He is far too impetuous and much too drastic. I can 
see that you are more intelligent than the other guards and 
therefore able to change for the better. Indeed, I have 
pointed out to him that you are obviously too civilized to be 
a sergeant. He is difficult to convince but I am doing my best
for you." 
"Huh?" said Kolum, half-flattered, half-scared.
"So he's left you alone at least for the time being," Leem-
ing said, knowing that the other was in no position to deny it. 
"He's done nothing to you - yet." He increased the gratifica- 
tion. "I'll do my very best to keep control of him. Only the 
stupidly brutal deserve slow death."
"That is true," agreed Kolum eagerly. "But what-"
"Now," interrupted Leeming with firmness, "it is up to you 
to prove that my confidence is justified and thus protect your- 
self against the fate that is going to visit the slower-witted. 
Brains were made to be used, weren't they?"
"Yes, but-"
"Those who don't possess brains cannot use what they 
haven't got, can they?"
"No, they cannot, but-"
"All that is necessary to demonstrate your intelligence is 
to take a message to the Commandant." 
Kolum popped his eyes in horror. "It is impossible. I dare 
not disturb him at this hour. The sergeant of the guard will 
not permit it. He will-"
"You are not being asked to take the message to the Com- 
mandant immediately. It is to be given to him personally 
when he awakens in the morning."
"That is different," said Kolum, vastly relieved. "But I 
must warn you that if he disapproves of the message he will 
punish you and not me."
"He will not punish me lest I in turn punish him," as- 
sured Leeming, as though stating a demonstrable fact. "Write 
my message down."
Leaning his gun against the corridor's farther wall, Kolum 
dug pencil and paper out of a pocket. A strained expression 
came into his eyes as he prepared himself for the formidable
task of inscribing a number of words. 
"To the Most Exalted Lousy Screw," began Leeming.
"What does 'lousy screw' mean?" asked Kolum as he strug- 
gled to put down the strange Terran words phonetically.
"It's a title. It means 'your highness.' Man, how high he 
is!" Leeming pinched his nose while the other pored over
the paper. He continued to dictate, going very slowly to keep
pace with Kolum's literary talent. "The food is insufficient
and very poor in quality. I am physically weak; I have lost 
much weight and my ribs are beginning to show. My Eustace 
does not like it. The thinner I get, the more threatening he 
becomes. The time is fast approaching when I shall have to 
refuse all responsibility for his actions. Therefore, I beg Your 
Most Exalted Lousy Screwship to give serious consideration 
to this matter."
"There are many words and some of them long ones," com- 
plained Kolum, managing to look like a reptilian martyr. "I 
shall have to rewrite them more readably when I go off duty."
"I know, and I appreciate the trouble you are taking on my 
behalf." Leeming bestowed a beam of fraternal fondness. 
"That's why I feel sure you'll live long enough to do the 
job."
"I must live longer than that," insisted Kolum, popping 
his eyes again. "I have the right to live, haven't I?"
"That is precisely the argument I've been using," said 
Leeming in the manner of one who has striven all night to 
establish the irrefutable but cannot yet guarantee success.
"I cannot talk to you any longer," informed Kolum, pick- 
ing up his gun. "I am not supposed to talk to you at all. If 
the sergeant of the guard should catch me he will-"
"The sergeant's days are numbered," Leeming told him in 
judicial tones. "He will not live long enough to know he's 
dead."
His hand extended in readiness to close the spy-hole, Ko- 
lum paused, looked as if he'd been slugged with a sockful 
of wet sand. Then he said, "How can anyone live long enough 
to know that he's dead?"
"It depends on the method of killing," assured Leeming. 
"There are some you've never heard of and cannot imagine."
At this point Kolum found the conversation distasteful. He 
closed the spy-hole. Leeming returned to the bench, sprawled 
upon it. The light went out. Seven stars peeped through the 
window slot - and they were not unattainable.
In the morning breakfast came an hour late but consisted
of one full bowl of lukewarm pap, two thick slices of brown
bread heavily smeared with grease, and a large cup of warm
liquid vaguely resembling paralyzed coffee. He got through 
the lot with mounting triumph. By contrast with what they 
had been giving him, this feast made the day seem like 
Christmas. His spirits perked up with the fullness of his 
belly.
No summons to a second interview came that day or the 
next. The Commandant made no move for more than a week. 
Evidently His Lousy Screwship was still awaiting a reply 
from the Lathian sector and did not feel inclined to take 
further action before he received it. However, meals re- 
mained more substantial, a fact that Leeming viewed as posi- 
tive evidence that someone was insuring himself against 
disaster.
Tben early one morning the Rigellians acted up. From the 
cell they could be heard but not seen. Every day at about 
an hour after dawn the tramp of their two thousand pairs 
of feet sounded somewhere out of sight and died away toward 
the workshops. Usually that was all that could be heard, no 
voices, no desultory conversation, just the weary trudge of 
feet and an occasional bellow from a guard.
This time they came out singing, their raucous voices hold- 
ing a distinct touch of defiance. In thunderous discord they 
were bawling something about Asta Zangasta's a dirty old 
geezer, got fleas on his chest and sores on his beezer. It 
should have sounded childish and futile. It didn't. The cor- 
porate effort seemed to convey an unspoken threat.
Guards yelled at them. The singing rose higher, defiance 
increasing along with the volume. Standing below his win- 
dow, Leeming listened intently. This was the first mention 
he'd heard of the much-abused Asta Zangasta, presumably 
this world's king, emperor or leading hooligan.
The bawling of two thousand voices rose to a crescendo.
Guards screamed frenziedly and were drowned within the
din. Somewhere a warning shot was fired. In the watchtowers 
the guards edged their guns around, dipped them as they 
aimed into the yard.
"Oh, what a basta is Asta Zangasta!" hollered the distant 
Rigellians as they reached the end of their epic poem.
There followed blows, shots, scuffling sounds, howls of 
fury. A bunch of twenty fully armed guards raced flat-footed 
past Leeming's window, headed for the unseeable fracas. The 
uproar continued for half an hour before gradually it died 
away. The resulting silence could almost be felt.
At exercise time Leeming had the yard to himself, there 
being not another prisoner in sight. He mooched around, 
puzzled and gloomy, until he encountered Marsin on yard 
patrol.
"Where are the others? What's happened to them?"
"They misbehaved and wasted a lot of time. They are be- 
ing detained in the workshops until they have made up the 
loss in production. It is their own fault. They started work late 
for the deliberate purpose of slowing down output. We didn't 
even have time to count them."
Leeming grinned into his face. "And some guards were 
hurt?"
"Yes," Marsin admitted.
"Not severely," Leeming suggested. "Just enough to give 
them a taste of what is to come. Think it over!"
"What do you mean?"
"I meant what I said - think it over." Then he added, "But 
you were not injured. Think that over, too!"
He ambled away, leaving Marsin uneasy and bewildered.
Six times he trudged around the yard while doing some heavy 
thinking himself. Sudden indiscipline among the Rigellians 
certainly had stirred up the prison and created enough ex-
citement to last a week. He wondered what had caused it. 
Probably they'd done it to gain relief from incarceration and 
despair. Sheer boredom can drive people into performing 
the craziest tricks.
On the seventh time round he was still pondering when 
suddenly a remark struck him with force like the blow of a 
hammer. "We didn't even have time to count them." Holy 
smoke! That must be the motive of this morning's rowdy per- 
formance. The choral society had avoided a count. There
could be only one reason why they should wish to dodge the
regular numbering parade.
Finding Marsin again, he promised, "Tomorrow some of
you guards will wish you'd never been born."
"Are you threatening us?"
"No, I am making a prophetic promise. Tell the guard
officer what I have said. Tell the Commandant, too. It might
help you to escape the consequences."
"I will tell them," said Marsin, mystified but grateful.

The following morning proved that he had been one hun- 
dred percent correct in his supposition that the Rigellians 
were too shrewd to invite thick ears and black eyes without 
good reason. It had taken the enemy a full day to arrive at 
the same conclusion.
At one hour after dawn the Rigellians were marched out
dormitory by dormitory, in batches of fifty instead of the 
usual continuous stream. They were counted in fifties, the 
easy way. This simple arithmetic became thrown out of kilter 
when one dormitory produced only twelve prisoners, all of 
them sick, wounded, or otherwise handicapped.
Infuriated guards rushed indoors to drag out the absent 
thirty-eight. They weren't there. The door was firm and solid, 
the window bars intact. Guards did considerable confused 
galloping around before one of them detected the slight shift 
of a well-trampled floor-slab. They lugged it up, found un- 
derneath a narrow but deep shaft from the bottom of which 
ran a tunnel. With great unwillingness one of them went 
down the shaft, crawled into the tunnel and in due time 
emerged a good distance outside the walls. Needless to say 
he had found the tunnel empty.
Sirens wailed, guards pounded all over the jail, officers 
shouted contradictory orders, the entire place began to re-
semble a madhouse. The Rigellians got it good and hard for
spoiling the previous morning's count and thus giving the 
escapees a full day's lead. Boots and gun butts were freely 
used, bodies dragged aside badly battered and unconscious.
The surviving top-ranker of the offending dormitory, a
lieutenant with a severe limp, was held responsible for the 
break, charged, tried, sentenced, put against a wall and shot. 
Leeming could see nothing of this but did hear the hoarse
commands of, "Present. . . aim . . . fire!" and the fol-
lowing volley.
He prowled round and round his cell, clenching and un- 
clenching his fists, swearing mightily to himself. All that he 
wanted, all that he prayed for was a high-ranking Zangastan 
throat under his thumbs. The spy-hole flipped open but hasti- 
ly shut before he could spit into somebody's eye.
The upset continued without abate as inflamed guards 
searched all dormitories one by one, testing doors, bars, walls, 
floors and even the ceilings. Officers screamed bloodthirsty 
threats at sullen groups of Rigellians who were slow to re- 
spond to orders.
At twilight the guards dragged in seven tired, bedraggled 
escapees who'd been caught on the run. Their reception was
short and sharp. "Present. . . aim . . . fire!" Frenziedly
Leeming battered at his door, but the spy-hole remained 
shut and nobody answered. Two hours later he made another 
coiled loop with the last of his wire. He spent half the night 
talking into it menacingly and at the top of his voice. Nobody 
took the slightest notice.
By noon next day a feeling of deep frustration had come 
over him. He estimated that the Rigellian break-out must 
have taken most of a year to prepare. Result: eight dead 
and thirty-one still loose. If they kept together and did not 
scatter, the thirty-one could form a crew large enough to seize 
a ship of any size up to and including a space-destroyer. But 
on the basis of his own experiences he thought they had 
remote chance of making such a theft.
With the whole world alarmed by an escape of this size 
there'd be strong military screens around every spaceport, 
and they would be maintained until the last of the thirty-one 
had been rounded up. The free might stay free for quite a 
time if they were lucky, but they were planet-bound, doomed 
to ultimate recapture and subsequent execution.
Meanwhile, their fellows were getting it rough in conse-
quence and his own efforts had been messed up. He did not 
resent the break, not one little bit. Good luck to them. But 
if only it had taken place two months earlier or later.
Moodily, he was finishing his dinner when four guards 
came for him. "The Commandant wants you at once." Their 
manner was edgy and subdued. One wore a narrow bandage 
around his scaly pate, another had a badly swollen eye.
Just about the worst moment to choose, thought Leeming. 
The Commandant would be all set to go up like a rocket at 
first hint of opposition of any kind. You cannot argue with 
a brass hat in a purple rage; emotion comes uppermost, words 
are disregarded, logic is treated with contempt. He was going 
to have a tough job on his hands.
The four marched him along the corridor, two in front, two 
behind. Left, right, left, right, thud, thud, thud - it made 
him think of a ceremonial parade to the guillotine. Around 
the corner in a little triangular yard there should be waiting a 
priest, a hanging knife, a wicker basket, a wooden box.
Together they tramped into the same room as before. The 
Commandant was sitting behind his desk, but there were no 
junior officers in attendance. The only other person present 
was an elderly civilian occupying a chair on the Comman- 
dant's right; he studied the prisoner with a sharp, intent gaze 
as he entered and took a seat.
"This is Pallam," introduced the Commandant with amia- 
bility so unexpected that it dumbfounded the listener. Show- 
ing a touch of awe, he added, "He has been sent here by no 
less a person than Zangasta himself."
"A mental specialist, I presume?" invited Leeming, wary 
of a trap.
"Nothing like that," said Pallam quietly. "I am especially 
interested in all aspects of symbiosis."
Leeming's back hairs stirred. He did not like the idea of 
being cross-examined by an expert. Such characters had pene- 
trating, unmilitary minds, and pernicious habit of destroying 
a good story by exhibiting its own contradictions. This mild- 
looking civilian, he decided, was definitely a major menace.
"Pallam wishes to ask you a few questions," informed the
Commandant, "but those will come later." He put on a self- 
satisfied expression. "For a start I wish to say that I am in- 
debted for the information you gave at our previous inter- 
view."
"You mean that it has proved useful to you?" asked Leem- 
ing, hardly believing his ears.
"Very much so in view of this serious and most stupid 
mutiny. All the guards responsible for Dormitory Fourteen are 
to be drafted to battle areas where they will be stationed 
upon spaceports liable to attack. That is their punishment 
for gross neglect of duty." He gazed thoughtfully at the 
other, went on, "My own fate would have been no less had 
not Zangasta considered the escape a minor matter when 
compared with the important data I got from you."
Though taken by surprise, Leeming was swift to cash in. 
"But when I asked you to see to it personally that I had better 
food. . . Surely you expected some reward?"
"Reward?" The Commandant was taken aback. "I did not 
think of such a thing."
"So much the better," approved Leeming, admiring the 
other's magnanimity. "A good deed is doubly good when done 
with no ulterior motive. Eustace will take careful note of 
that."
"You mean," put in Pallam, "that his code of ethics is 
identical with your own?"
Damn the fellow! Why did he have to put in his two cents 
worth? Be careful now!
"Similar in some respects but not identical." 
"What is the most outstanding difference?"
"Well," said Leeming, playing for time, "it's hard to de- 
cide." He rubbed his brow while his mind whizzed dizzily. 
"I'd say in the matter of vengeance."
"Define the difference," ordered Pallam, sniffing along the 
trail like a hungry bloodhound.
"From my viewpoint," informed Leeming, inwardly curs- 
ing the other to hell and perdition, "he is unnecessarily sa-
distic."
There, that gave needed coverage for any widespread
claims it might be desirable to make later on.
"In what way?" persisted Pallam.
"My instinct is to take prompt action, to get things over
and done with. His tendency is to prolong the agony."
"Explain further," pressed Pallam, making a thorough nui-
sance of himself.
"If you and I were mortal enemies, if I had a gun and you
had not, I would shoot and kill you. But if Eustace had you
marked for death, he'd make it slower, more gradual."
"Describe his method."
"First, he'd let you know that you were doomed. Then he'd
do nothing about it until eventually you became obsessed
with the notion that it was all an illusion and that nothing
ever would be done. At that point he'd remind you with a
minor blow. When the resulting fear and alarm had worn off,
he'd strike a harder one. And so on and so on with increasing
intensity spread over as long a time as necessary."
"Necessary for what?"
"Until your doom became plain and the strain of waiting
for it became too much to bear." He thought a moment,
added, "No Eustace ever has killed anyone. He uses tactics 
peculiarly his own. He arranges accidents or he badgers a
victim into dying by his own hand." 
"You mean he drives a victim to suicide?"
"Yes, that's what I've said."
"And there is no way of avoiding such a fate?"
"Yes there is," Lemeing contradicted. "At any time the
victim can gain personal safety and freedom from fear by 
redressing the wrong he has done to that Eustace's partner."
"Such redress immediately terminates the vendetta?"
"That's right." 
"Whether or not you approve personally?" 
"Yes. If my grievance ceases to be real and becomes only
imaginary, my Eustace refuses to recognize it or do anything
about it."
"So what it boils down to," said Pallam pointedly, "is that
his method provides motive and opportunity for repentance 
while yours does not?"
"I suppose so."
"Which means that he has a more balanced sense of jus- 
tice?"
"He can be darned ruthless," objected Leeming, momen- 
tarily unable to think of a retort less feeble.
"That is beside the point," snapped Pallam. He lapsed into 
meditative silence, then remarked to the Commandant, "It 
seems that the association is not between equals. The invisible 
component is also the superior one. In effect, it is the master 
of a material slave but exercises mastery with such cunning 
that the slave would be the first to deny his own status."
He shot a provocative glance at Leeming, who set his 
teeth and said nothing. Crafty old hog, thought Leeming - 
if he was trying to tempt the prisoner into a heated denial 
he was going to be disappointed. Let him remain under the 
delusion that Leeming had been weighed in the balance 
and found wanting. There is no shame in being defined as in- 
ferior to a figment of one's own imagination.
Now positively foxy, Pallam probed, "When your Eustace 
takes it upon himself to wreak vengeance, he does so because 
circumstances prevent suitable punishment being adminis- 
tered either by yourself or the Terran community? Is that cor- 
rect?"
"Near enough," admitted Leeming cautiously.
"In other words, he functions only when you and the law are 
impotent?"
"He takes over when the need arises."
"You are being evasive. We must get this matter straight. 
If you or your fellows can and do punish someone, does any 
Eustace also punish him?"
"No," said Leeming, fidgeting uneasily.
"If you or your fellows cannot or do not punish someone, 
does a Eustace then step in and enforce punishment?"
"Only if a living Terran has suffered unjustly."
"The sufferer's Eustace takes action on his partner's be- 
half?"
"Yes."
"Good!" declared Pallam. He leaned forward, watched the 
other keen-eyed and managed to make his attitude intimidat- 
ing. "Now let us suppose that your Eustace finds justifiable 
reason to punish another Terran - what does the victim's Eu- 
stace do about it?"


X

IT WAS a clever trap based upon the knowledge that questions 
about factual, familiar, everyday things can be answered auto- 
matically, almost without thought. Whereas a liar seeking a 
supporting lie needs time to create consistency. It should 
have got Leeming completely foozled. That it did not do so 
was no credit to his own wits.
While his mind still whirled his mouth opened and the 
words, "Not much" popped out of their own accord. For a 
mad moment he wondered whether Eustace had arrived and 
joined the party.
"Why not?"
Encouraged by his tongue's mastery of the situation, Leem- 
ing gave it free rein. "I have told you before and I am telling 
you again that no Eustace will concern himself for one mo- 
ment with a grievance that is wholly imaginary. A Terran 
who is guilty of a crime has no genuine cause for complaint. 
He has brought vengeance upon himself and the cure lies 
in his own hands. If he doesn't enjoy suffering, he need only 
get busy and undo whatever wrong he has done to another."
"Will his Eustace urge or influence him to take action nec- 
essary to avoid punishment?"
"Never having been a criminal myself," answered Leeming 
with great virtue, "I am unable to tell you. I suppose it 
would be near the truth to say that Terrans behave because 
association with Eustaces compels them to behave. They have 
little choice about the matter."
"On the other hand, Terrans have no way of compelling 
their Eustaces to behave?" 
"No compulsion is necessary. A Eustace will always listen
to his partner's reason and act within the limits of common 
justice."
"As I told you," said Pallam in an aside to the Comman- 
dant, "the Terran is the lower form of the two." He returned 
attention to the prisoner. "All that you have told us is accept- 
able because it is consistent - as far as it goes."
"What do you mean, as far as it goes?"
"Let me take it to the bitter end," suggested Pallam. "I 
do not see any rational reason why any criminal's Eustace 
should allow his partner to be driven to suicide. Since they 
are mutually independent of others but mutually dependent 
upon each other, a Eustace's inaction is contrary to the basic 
law of survival."
"Nobody commits suicide until he has gone off his rocker." 
"Until he has done what?"
"Become insane," said Leeming. "An insane person is 
worthless as a material partner. To a Eustace he is already 
dead, not worth protecting or avenging. Eustaces associate 
only with the sane."
Pouncing on that, Pallam said excitedly, "So the benefit 
they derive is rooted somewhere within Terran minds? It is 
mental sustenance that they draw from you?"
"I don't know." 
"Does your Eustace ever make you feel tired, exhausted, 
perhaps a little stupefied?"
"Yes," said Leeming with emphasis. How true, brother, 
how true. Right now he'd find pleasure in choking Eustace to 
death.
"I would like to pursue this phenomenon for months," Pal- 
lam told the Commandant. "It is an absorbing subject. There 
are no records of symbiotic association among anything higher 
than the plants and six species of the lower elames. To find 
it among the higher vertebrates, sentient forms, and one of 
them intangible, is remarkable, truly remarkable."
The Commandant looked impressed without knowing what 
the other was talking about.
"Give him your report," urged Pallam.
"0ur liaison officer, Colonel Shomuth, has replied from
the Lathian sector," the Commandant told Leeming. "He is 
fluent in Cosmoglotta and therefore was able to question 
many Terran prisoners without the aid of a Lathian inter- 
preter. We sent him a little more information and the result 
is significant."
"What else did you expect?" Leeming observed, inwardly
consumed with curiosity. 
Ignoring that, the Commandant went on, "He reported 
that most of the prisoners refused to make comment or to 
admit anything. They maintained determined silence. That is 
understandable because nothing could shake their belief that 
they were being tempted to surrender information of military 
value. They resisted all of Colonel Shomuth's persuasions and 
kept their mouths shut." He sighed at such stubbornness. 
"But some talked."
"A few are always willing to blab," remarked Leeming.
"Certain officers talked, including Cruiser Captain Tompass . . . 
Tompus . . ."
"Thomas?"
"Yes, that is the word." Swiveling around in his chair, 
the Commandant pressed a wall-button. "This is the beamed 
interview unscrambled and recorded on tape."
A crackling hiss poured out of a perforated grid set into 
the wall. It grew louder, died down to a background wash. 
Voices came out of the grid.
Shomuth: "Captain Thomas, I have been ordered to check 
certain information now in our possession. You have nothing 
to lose by giving answers, nothing to gain by refusing them. 
There are no Lathians present, only the two of us. You may 
speak freely and what you say will be treated in confidence."
Thomas: "Mighty leery about the Lathians all of a sudden, 
aren't you? You won't fool me with that gambit. Enemies are 
enemies no matter what their name or shape. You'11 get noth- 
ing out of me."
Shomuth, patiently: "I suggest, Captain Thomas, that you 
hear and consider the questions before you decide whether or
not to answer them."
Thomas, boredly: "All right.  What do you want to know?"
Shomuth: "Whether our Lathian allies really are Nuts." 
Thomas, after a long pause: "You want the blunt truth?" 
Shomuth: "We do."
Thomas, with a trace of sarcasm: "I hate to speak against 
anyone behind his back, even a lousy Lathian. But there are 
times when one is compelled to admit that dirt is dirt, sin 
is sin and a Lathian is what he is, eh?"
Shomuth: "Please answer my question."
Thomas: "The Lathians are nuts."
Shomuth: "And they have the Willies?"
Thomas: "Say, where did you dig up this information?" 
Shomuth: "That is our business. Will you be good enough
to give me an answer."
Thomas, belligerently: "Not only have they got the willies 
but they'll have a darned sight more of them before we're 
through."
Shomuth, puzzled: "How can that be? We have learned 
that each and every Lathian is unconsciously controlled by a 
Willy. Therefore the total number of Willies must be limited. 
It cannot be increased except by the birth of more Lathians."
Thomas, quickly: "You've got me wrong. What I meant 
was that as Lathian casualties mount up the number of un- 
attached Willies will increase. Obviously, even the best of 
Willies cannot control a corpse, can he? There will be lots 
more Willies loafing around in proportion to the number of 
Lathian survivors."
Shomuth: "Yes, I see what you mean. And it will create 
a pyschic problem of great seriousness." Pause. "Now, Cap- 
tain Thomas, have you any reason to suppose that a large 
number of partnerless Willies might be able to seize control 
of another and different lifeform? Such as my own species, 
for example?"
Thomas, with enough menace to deserve a space-medal: 
"I wouldn't be surprised."
Shomuth: "You don't know for sure?"
Thomas: "No."
Shomuth: "It is true, is it not, that you are aware of the
real Lathian nature only because you have been warned of it 
by your Eustace?"
Thomas, startled: "By my what?"
Shomuth: "By your Eustace. Why should that surprise 
you?"
Thomas, recovering swiftly enough to earn a bar to the 
medal: "I thought you said Useless. Silly of me. Yes, my 
Eustace. You're dead right there."
Shomuth in lower tones: "There are more than four hun- 
dred Terran prisoners here. That means more than four hun- 
dred Eustaces are wandering around unchallenged on this 
planet. Correct?"
Thomas: "I am unable to deny it."
Shomuth: "The Lathian heavy cruiser Veder crashed on
landing and was a total loss. The Lathians attributed it to an
error of judgment on the part of the crew. But that was just 
three days after you prisoners were brought here. Was it a 
mere coincidence?"
Thomas: "Work it out for yourself."
Shomuth: "You realize that so far as we are concerned your 
refusal to reply is as good as an answer?"
Thomas: "Construe it any way you like. I will not betray 
Terran military secrets."
Shomuth: "All right. Let me try you on something else. 
The biggest fuel dump in this part of the galaxy is located 
a few degrees south of here. A week ago it blew up to total 
desruction. The loss was a severe one; it will handicap the 
Combine fleets for quite a time to come."
Thomas, with enthusiasm: "Cheers!"
Shomuth: "Lathian technicians theorize that a static spark 
caused a leaking tank to explode and that set off the rest in 
rapid succession. We can always trust technicians to come 
up with a glib explanation."
Thomas: "Well, what's wrong with it?"
Shomuth: "That dump has been established for more than 
four years. No static sparks have caused trouble during that
time."
Thomas: "What are you getting at?"
Shomuth, pointedly: "You have admitted yourself that 
more than four hundred Eustaces are roaming this area, free 
to do as they please."
Thomas, in tones of stern patriotism: "I am admitting 
nothing. I refuse to answer any more questions."
Shomuth: "Has your Eustace prompted you to say that?" 
Silence.
Shomuth: "If your Eustace is now present, can I question 
him through you?"
No reply.

Switching off, the Commandant said, "There you are. 
Eight other Terran officers gave more or less the same evi- 
dence. The rest tried to conceal the facts but, as you have 
heard, they failed. Zangasta himself has listened to the taped 
records and is deeply concerned about the situation."
"He needn't worry his head about it," Leeming offered. 
"Why not?"
"It's all a lot of bunk, a put-up job. There was collusion 
between my Eustace and theirs."
The Commandant looked sour. "As you emphasized at our 
last meeting, there cannot be collusion without Eustaces, so 
it makes no difference either way."
"I'm glad you can see it at last."
"Let it pass," chipped in Pallam impatiently. "It is of no 
consequence. The confirmatory evidence is adequate no 
matter how we look at it."
Thus prompted, the Commandant continued, "I have been 
doing some investigating myself. In two years we've had a 
long series of small-scale troubles with the Rigellians, none 
of them really serious. But after you arrive there comes a 
big break that obviously must have been planned long before 
you turned up but soon afterward took place in circum- 
stances suggesting outside help. Whence came this assist- 
ance?" 
"Not telling," said Leeming knowingly.
"At one time or another eight of my guards earned your 
emnity by assaulting you. Of these, four are now in the hospi-
tal badly injured, two more are to be drafted to the fighting 
front. I presume that it is only a matter of time before the 
remaining two are plunged into trouble?"
"The other two have arbitrated and earned forgiveness. 
Nothing will happen to them."
"Is that so?" The Commandant registered surprise. 
Leeming went on, "I cannot give the same guarantee with
respect to the firing squad, the officer in charge of it, or the 
higher-up who ordered that helpless prisoners be shot."
"We always execute prisoners who break out of jail. It is 
an old-established practice and a necessary deterrent."
"We always settle accounts with the executioners," Leem- 
ing gave back.
"By 'we' you mean you and your Eustace?" put in Pallam. 
"Yes."
"Why should your Eustace care? The victims were not Ter- 
rans. They were merely a bunch of obstreperous Rigellians."
"Rigellians are allies. And allies are friends. I feel bad 
about the cold-blooded, needless slaughtering of them. Eu- 
stace is very sensitive to my emotions."
"But not necessarily obedient to them?"
"No."
"In fact," pressed Pallam, determined to establish the point 
once and for all, "if there is any question of one being sub- 
ordinate to the other, it is you who serves him."
"Most times, anyway," conceded Leeming with the air of 
having a tooth pulled.
"Well, it confirms what you've already told us." Pallam 
gave a thin smile. "The chief difference between Terrans and 
Lathians is that you know you're controlled whereas the 
Lathians are ignorant of their own status."
"We are not controlled consciously or unconsciously," 
Leeming insisted. "We exist in mutual partnership, the same 
as you do with your wife. Sometimes she gives way to you, 
other times you give way to her. Neither of you bother to 
estimate who has given way the most in any specific period 
and neither of you insists that a perfect balance must be
maintained, That's how it is. And it's mastery by neither 
party,"
"I wouldn't know, never having been mated," Pallam 
turned to the Commandant. "Carry on."
"As probably you are aware by now, this planet has been 
set aside as the Combine's main penal world," informed the 
Commandant. "Already we hold a large number of prisoners, 
mainly Rigellian."
"What of it?"
"There are more to come. Two thousand Centaurians and 
six hundred Thetans are due to arrive and fill a new jail next 
week. Combine forces will transfer more enemy lifeforms as 
soon as we have accommodation for them and ships are avail- 
able." He eyed the other speculatively, "It is only a matter 
of time before they start dumping Terrans on us as well."
"Is the prospect bothering you?"
"Zangasta has decided that he must refuse to accept Ter- 
rans.
"That's up to him," said Leeming, blandly indifferent. 
"Zangasta has a clever mind," opined the Commandant,
oozing patriotic admiration. "He is of the firm opinion that 
to assemble a formidable army of mixed prisoners all on one 
planet, and then add some thousands of Terrans to the mix- 
ture, is to create a potentially dangerous situation. He fore- 
sees trouble on a far greater scale than we could handle. In- 
deed, we might lose control of this world, strategically placed 
in the Combine's rear, and become subject to the violent 
attacks of our own allies."
"That is quite possible," Leeming agreed. "In fact it's 
quite probable. In fact it's practically certain. But it's not 
Zangasta's only worry. It's the one he's seen fit to put out for 
publication. He's got a private one, too." 
"And what is that?"
"Zangasta himself originated the order that escaped pris- 
oners be shot. He must have done so - otherwise nobody 
would dare shoot them. Now he's jumpy because a Eustace
may be sitting on his bed and grinning at him every night.
He thinks that a few thousand Eustaces will be a propor-
tionately greater menace to him. But he's wrong." 
"Why is he wrong?" inquired the Commandant.
"Because it isn't only the repentant who have no cause to 
fear. The dead haven't either. The arrival on this world of 
fifty million Eustaces means nothing whatever to a corpse. 
Zangasta had better countermand that shooting order if he 
wants to go on living."
"l'll inform him of your remarks. However, such cancel- 
lation may not be necessary. As I have told you, he is clever.
He has devised a subtle strategy that will put all your evi-
dence to the final, conclusive test and at the same time may 
solve his problems to his own satisfaction."
Feeling vague alarm, Leeming asked, "Am I permitted to 
know what he intends to do?"
"He has given instructions that you be told. And already 
he has swung into action." The Commandant waited for the 
sake of effect then finished, "He has beamed the Allies a 
proposal to exchange prisoners."
Leeming fidgeted around in his seat. Ye gods, the plot was 
thickening with a vengeance. From the very beginning his 
sole purpose had been to talk himself out of jail and into 
some other situation more favorable for sudden departure at 
high speed. He'd only been trying to lift himself over the 
wall with his tongue. Now they were taking up his story and
plastering it all over the galaxy! 
"What is more," the Commandant went on, "the Allies 
have notified us of their acceptance providing we exchange 
rank for rank. That is to say, captains for captains, navigators 
for navigators and so forth."
"That's reasonable."
"Zangasta," said the Commandant, grinning like a hungry 
wolf, "has agreed in his turn - providing that the Allies take 
Terran prisoners first and make exchange on a basis of two 
for one. He is now awaiting their reply."
"Two for one?" echoed Leeming, blinking. "You mean he 
wants them to release two of their prisoners for every Terran
they get back?"
"No, no, of course not." He increased the grin and ex- 
posed the roots of his teeth. "They must return two Combine 
troopers for each Terran and his Eustace that we hand back. 
That is two for two and perfectly fair, is it not?"
"It's not for me to say." Leeming swallowed hard. "The 
Allies are the judges."
"Until a reply arrives and mutual agreement has been 
achieved, Zangasta wishes you to have better treatment. You 
will be transferred to the officers' quarters outside the walls, 
you will share their meals and be allowed to go for walks in 
the country. Temporarily, you will be treated as a non-com- 
batant and you'll be very comfortable. It is necessary that 
you give me your parole not to try to escape."
Holy smoke, this was another stinker. The entire fiction was 
shaped toward ultimate escape. He couldn't abandon it now. 
Neither was he willing to give his word of honor with the 
cynical intention of breaking it.
"Parole refused," he said firmly.
The Commandant was incredulous. "Surely you do not 
mean that?"
"I do. I have no choice. Terran military law does not per- 
mit a prisoner-of-war to give such a promise."
"Why not?"
"Because no Terran can accept responsibility for his Eu- 
stace. How can I swear not to get out when half of me can- 
not be got in? Can a twin take oath on behalf of his broth- 
er?"
"Guard!" called the Commandant, visibly disappointed.

He mooched uneasily around his cell for a full twelve days, 
occasionally chatting with Eustace nighttimes for the benefit 
of ears lurking outside the door. Definitely he'd wangled 
himself into a predicament that was a case of put up or shut 
up; in order to put up he dared not shut up.
The food remained better in quantity though little could 
be said for its quality. Guards treated him with that diffi- 
dence accorded to captives who somehow are in cahoots with
their superiors.  Four more recaptured Rigellians were brought
back but not shot. All the signs and portents were that he'd
still got a grip on the foe.
Though he'd said nothing to them, the other prisoners had
got wind of the fact that in some mysterious way he was
responsible for the general softening of prison conditions. At 
exercise time they treated him as a deep and subtle character
who could achieve the impossible. From time to time their 
curiosity got the better of them.
"You know they didn't execute those last four?"
"Yes," Leeming admitted.
"It's being said that you stopped the shooting."
"Who says so?" 
"It's just a story going around." 
"That's right, it's just a story going around."
"I wonder why they shot the first bunch but not the sec-
ond? There must be a reason."
"Maybe the Zangastans have developed belated qualms of 
conscience," Leeming suggested.
"There's more to it than that."
"Such as what?"
"Somebody has shaken them up."
"Who, for instance?"
"I don't know. There's a strong rumor that you've got the 
Commandant eating out of your hand."
"That's likely, isn't it?" Leeming countered.
"I wouldn't think so. But one never knows where one is
with you Terrans." The other brooded a bit, asked, "What did
you do with that wire I stole for you?"
"I'm knitting it into a pair of socks. Nothing fits better or
wears longer than solid wire socks."
Thus he foiled their inquisitiveness and kept his silence,
not wanting to arouse false hopes. Inwardly, he was badly 
bothered. The Allies in general and Earth in particular knew 
nothing whatever about Eustaces, and therefore were likely
to treat a two-for-one proposition with the contempt it de-
served. A blank refusal on their part might cause him to
be plied with awkward questions, impossible to answer.
In that case it would occur to them sooner or later that
they were afflicted with the biggest liar in history. They'd 
then devise tests of fiendish ingenuity. When he flunked them 
the balloon would go up.
He wasn't inclined to give himself too much credit for hav- 
ing kidded them along so far. The few books he'd been able 
to read had shown that Zangastan religion was based upon 
reverence for ancestral spirits. The Zangastans were also fa- 
miliar with what is known as poltergeist phenomena. The 
ground had been prepared for him in advance; he'd merely 
plowed it and sown the crop. When a victim already be- 
lieves in two kinds of invisible beings, it isn't hard to per- 
suade him to swallow a third.
But when the Allies beamed Asta Zangasta a curt invita- 
tion to make his bed on a railroad track, it was possible that 
the third type of spirit would be regurgitated with violence. 
Unless by fast, convincing talk he could cram it back down 
their gullets when it was halfway out. How to do that?
In his cell he was stewing this problem over and over 
when the guards came for him again. The Commandant was 
there but Pallam was not. Instead, a dozen civilians eyed him 
curiously. That made a total of thirteen enemies, a very 
suitable number to pronounce him ready for the chopper.
Feeling as much the center of attention as a six-tailed 
wombat at the zoo, he sat down and four civilians imme- 
diately started questioning him, taking it in relays. They were 
interested in one subject and one only, namely, bopamagilvies. 
It seemed that they'd been playing for hours with his samples, 
had achieved nothing except some practice in acting daft, 
and were not happy about it.
On what principle did a bopamagilvie work? Did it focus 
telepathic output into a narrow, long-range beam? At what 
distance did his Eustace get beyond range of straight conver- 
sation and have to be summoned with the aid of a gadget? 
Why was it necessary to make directional search before ob- 
taining a reply? How did he know how to make a coiled loop 
in the first place?
"I can't explain. How does a bird know how to make a 
nest? The knowledge is wholly instinctive. I have known how
to call my Eustace ever since I was old enough to shape a
piece of wire."
"Could it be that your Eustace implants the necessary 
knowledge in your mind?"
"Frankly, I've never given that idea a thought, But it is
possible." "Will any kind of wire serve?"
"So long as it's non-ferrous."
"Are all Terran loops of exactly the same construction and 
dimensions?"
"No, they vary with the individual."
"We've made careful and thorough search of Terran pris-
oners held by the Lathians. Not one of them owns a similar
piece of apparatus. How do you account for that?"
"They don't need one."
"Why not?"
"Because when more than four hundred of them are im-
prisoned together, they can always count on at least a few of 
their Eustaces being within easy reach at any given time." 
Somehow he beat them off, feeling hot in the forehead and 
cold in the belly. Then the Commandant took over.
"The Allies have flatly refused to accept Terran prisoners 
ahead of other species, or to exchange them two for one, or 
to discuss the matter any further. What have you to say to 
that?"
Steeling himself, Leeming commented, "Look, on your side 
there are more than twenty lifeforms of which the Lathians 
and the Zebs are by far the most powerful. Now if the Allies 
had wanted to give priority of exchange to one species do 
you think the Combine would agree? If, for example, the fa- 
vored species happened to be the Tansites, would the La- 
thians and Zebs vote for them to get home first?"
A tall, authoritative civilian chipped in. "I am Daverd, 
personal aide to Zangasta. He is of your opinion. He believes 
that the Terrans have been outvoted. Therefore, I am com- 
manded to ask you one question,"
"What is it?"
"Do your allies know about your Eustaces?"
"No."
"You have succeeded in hiding the facts from them?"
"There's never been any question of concealing anything 
from them. With friends, the facts just don't become appar- 
ent. Eustaces take effective action only against enemies and 
that is something that cannot be concealed forever."
"Very well." Daverd came closer, put on a conspiratorial 
air. "The Lathians started this war and the Zebs went with 
them by reason of their military alliance. The rest of us got 
dragged in for one cause or another. The Lathians are strong 
and arrogant but, as we now know, they are not responsible 
for their actions."
"What's this to me?"
"Separately, we numerically weaker lifeforms cannot stand 
against the Lathians or the Zebs. But together we are strong 
enough to step out of the war and maintain our right to be 
neutral. So Zangasta has consulted the others."
Lord! Isn't it amazing what can be done with a few yards 
of copper wire?
"He has received their replies today," Daverd went on. 
"They are willing to make a common front for the sake of 
enjoying mutual peace - providing that the Allies are equally 
willing to recognize their neutrality and exchange prisoners 
with them."
"Such sudden unanimity among the small fry tells me 
something pretty good," observed Leeming with malice.
"It tells you what?"
"Allied forces have won a major battle lately. Somebody 
has been given a hell of a lambasting."
Daverd refused to confirm or deny it. "You are the only 
Terran we hold on this planet. Zangasta thinks he can make 
good use of you."
"How?"
"He has decided to send you back to Terra. It will be 
your task to persuade them to agree to our plans. If you 
fail, a couple of hundred thousand hostages will suffer - re- 
member that!"
"The prisoners have no say in this matter, no hand in it,
no responsibility for it. If you vent your spite upon them a
time will surely come when you'll be made to pay - remember
that!"
"The Allies will know nothing about it," Daverd retorted.
"There will be no Terrans and no Eustaces here to inform
them by any underhanded method. Henceforth we are keep-
ing Terrans out. The Allies cannot use knowledge they do not 
possess."
"No," agreed Leeming. "It's quite impossible to employ 
something you haven't got."

They provided a light destroyer crewed by ten Zanga- 
stans. With one stop for refueling and the fitting of new tubes 
it took him to a servicing planet right on the fringe of the 
battle area. This dump was a Lathian outpost but those 
worthies showed no interest in what their smaller allies were 
up to, nor did they realize that the one Terran-like creature 
really was a Terran. They got to work relining the destroyer's 
tubes in readiness for its journey home. Meanwhile, Leeming 
was transferred to an unarmed one-man Lathian scout-ship. 
The ten Zangastans officiously saluted before they left him.
From this point he was strictly on his own. Take-off was 
a heller. The seat was far too big and shaped to fit the 
Lathian backside, which meant that it was humped in the 
wrong places. The controls were unfamiliar and situated too 
far apart. The little ship was fast and powerful but responded 
differently from his own. How he got off the ground he never
knew, but he made it. 
After that there was the constant risk of being tracked by 
Allied detector stations and blown apart in full flight. He 
charged among the stars hoping for the best and left his 
beam transmitter severely alone; calls on an enemy frequency 
might make him a dead duck in no time at all.
He arrowed straight for Terra. His sleeps were restless and 
uneasy. The tubes were not to be trusted, even though the 
flight-duration would be only a third of that done in his own 
vessel. The strange autopilot was not to be trusted merely
because it was of alien design. The ship itself was not to be
trusted for the same reason. The forces of his own side were
not to be trusted because they tended to shoot first and ask 
questions afterward.
More by good luck than good management he penetrated
the Allied front without interception. It was a feat that the 
foe could accomplish, given the audacity, but had never at-
tempted because the risk of getting into Allied territory 
was nothing compared to the trouble of getting out again. 
In due time he came in fast on Terra's night side and 
plonked the ship down in a field a couple of miles west of the
main spaceport. It would have been foolish to take a chance 
by landing a Lathian vessel bang in the middle of the port.
Somebody behind a heavy gun might have stuttered with ex- 
citement and let fly.
The moon was shining bright along the Wabash when he 
approached the front gate afoot and a sentry bawled, "Halt! 
Who goes there?" 
"Lieutenant Leeming and Eustace Phenackertiban."
"Advance and be recognized."
He ambled forward thinking to himself that such an order 
was manifestly stupid. Be recognized! The sentry had never
seen him in his life and wouldn't know him from Myrtle Mc- 
Turtle. Oh, well, baloney baffies brains.
At the gate a powerful cone of light shone down upon him.
Somebody with three chevrons on his sleeve emerged from a 
nearby hut bearing a scanner on the end of a thin black 
cable. He waved the scanner over the arrival from head to 
feet, concentrating mostly upon the face. 
A loudspeaker in the hut ordered, "Bring him into Intelli-
gence H.Q."
They started walking. 
The sentry let go an agitated yelp. "Hey, where's the other 
guy?"
"What guy?" asked the sergeant, stopping and staring
around. 
"Smell his breath," Leeming advised. 
"You gave me two names," asserted the sentry, full of re-
sentment.
"Well, if you ask the sergeant nicely he'll give you two
more," said Leeming. "Won't you, Sarge?"
"Let's get going," growled the sergeant, displaying liver-
ish impatience.
They reached Intelligence H.Q. The duty officer was Colo-
nel Farmer. He gaped at Leeming and said, "Well!" He said
it seven times.
Without preamble, Leeming demanded, "What's all this
about us refusing to make a two-for-one swap for Terran pris-
oners?"
Farmer appeared to haul himself with an effort out of a 
fantastic dream. 
"You know of it?" .
"How could I ask if I didn't?"
"All right. Why should we accept such a cockeyed propo-
sition? We're in our right minds you know!"
Bending over the other's desk, hands splayed upon it, 
Leeming said, "All we need do is agree - upon one condition."
"What condition?"
"That they make a similar agreement with respect to 
Lathians. Two of our men for one Lathian and one Willy."
"One what?"
"One Willy. The Lathians will take it like birds. They have
been propagandizing all over the place that one Lathian is
worth two of anything else. They're too conceited to refuse
such an offer. They11 advertise it as proof positive that even
their enemies know how good they are."
"But-" began Farmer, slightly dazed.
"Their allies will fall all over themselves in their haste to
agree also. They'll do it from different motives to which the 
Lathians will wake up when it's too late. Try it for size. Two 
of our fellows for one Lathian and his Willy."
Farmer stood up, his belly protruding, and roared, "What
the blue blazes is a Willy?"
"You can easily find out," assured Leeming. "Consult your 
Eustace."
Showing alarm, Farmer lowered his tones to a soothing
pitch and said as gently as possible, "Your appearance here
has been a great shock to me. Many months ago you were re- 
ported missing and believed killed."
"I crash-landed and got taken prisoner in the back of be- 
yond. They were a snake-skinned bunch called Zangastans. 
They slung me into the jug."
"Yes, yes," said Colonel Farmer, making pacifying gestures. 
"But how on Earth did you get away?"
"Farmer, I cannot tell a lie. I hexed them with my bopa-
magilvie." 
"Huh?"
"So I left by rail," informed Leeming, "and there were ten 
faplaps carrying it." Taking the other unaware he let go a 
vicious kick at the desk and made a spurt of ink leap across 
the blotter. "Now let's see some of the intelligence they're 
supposed to have in Intelligence. Beam the offer. Two for a 
cootie-coated Lathian and a Willy Terwilliger." He stared 
around, a wild look in his eyes. "And find me some place 
to sleep - I'm dead beat."
Holding himself in enormous restraint, Farmer said, "Lieu- 
tenant, is that the proper way in which to talk to a colonel?"
"One talks in any way to anybody. Mayor Snorkum will lay the 
cake. Go paddle a poodle." Leeming kicked the desk 
again. "Get busy and tuck me into bed."



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Proofing corrected OCR errors - other errors left as published. 
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