"Well, this is the limit!" Paula Quinton, who had come up during the
filming of the scene, exploded. "I thought you had to kill him
yourself in order to encourage your soldiers; I didn't think you
wanted to make a movie of it to show your friends."

Von Schlichten tapped the cigarette on the gold-and-platinum case and
stared at her through his monocle.

"Sit down, colonel." He lit the cigarette. "Your politico-military
education still needs a little filling in. At Grank, we have two
ships. One is the _Northern Lights_, sister ships of the _Northern
Star_. The other is the cruiser _Procyon_, the only real warship on
Ullr, with a main battery of four 200-mm. guns. How King Yoorkerk was
able to get control of those ships I don't know, but there will be a
board of inquiry and maybe a couple of courts-martial, when things get
stabilized to a point where we can afford such luxuries. As it is, we
need those ships desperately, and as soon as he gets in, I'm sending
Hideyoshi O'Leary to Grank with the _Northern Star_ and a load of
Kragan Rifles, to pry them loose. The audio-visual of which this is
the last scene is going to be one of the crowbars he's going to use."

"But why did you have to fight Firkked, yourself?" she asked.

"I had to kill him, myself, with a sword; according to local custom,
that makes me King of Skilk."

"Why, your Majesty!" She rose and curtsied mockingly. "But I thought
you were going to make Jonkvank King of Skilk."

He shook his head. "Just Viceroy," he corrected. "I'm handing the
Spear of State _down_ to him, not up to him; he'll reign as my vassal,
and, consequently, as vassal of the Company, and before long, he won't
be much more at Krink, either. That'll take a little longer--there'll
have to be military missions, and economic missions, and
trade-agreements, and all the rest of it, first--but he's on the way
to becoming a puppet-prince."

* * * * *

Half an hour later, a large and excessively ornate air-launch,
specially built at the Konkrook shipyards for King Jonkvank, was
sighted coming over the mountain from the east. An escort of
combat-cars was sent to meet it, and a battalion of Kragans and the
survivors of Firkked's court were drawn up on the Palace roof.

"His Majesty, Jonkvank, King of Krink!" the former herald of King
Firkked's court, now herald to King Carlos von Schlichten, shouted,
banging on a brass shield with the flat of his sword, as Jon