y when they parted on the living-quarters level
that he recalled having followed the older protocol of gallantry
rather than the precedence of military rank.

XII

He woke with a guilty start and looked up at the clock on the ceiling;
it was 0945. Kicking himself free of the covers, he slid his feet to
the floor and sprinted for the bathroom. While he was fussing to get
the shower adjusted to the right temperature, he bludgeoned his
conscience by telling himself that a wide-awake general is more good
than a half-asleep general, that there was nothing he could do but
hope that Hargreaves' patrols would keep the bomb away from Konkrook
until Pickering's brain-trust came up with one of their own, and that
the fact that the commander-in-chief was making sack-time would be
much better for morale than the spectacle of him running around in
circles. He shaved carefully; a stubble of beard on his chin might
betray the fact that he was worried. Then he dressed, put his monocle
in his eye, and called the headquarters that had been set up in Sid
Harrington's--now his--office. A girl at the switchboard appeared on
his screen, and gave place to Paula Quinton, who had been up for the
past two hours.

"The _Northern Lights_ got in about three hours ago, general," she
told him. "She had four of King Yoorkerk's infantry regiments
aboard--the Seventh, Glorious-and-Terrible, the Fourth,
Firm-in-Adversity, the Second, Strength-of-the-Throne, and the
Twelfth, Forever-Admirable. They're the sorriest looking rabble I ever
saw, but Hideyoshi says they're the best Yoorkerk has, and they all
have Terran-style rifles. General M'zangwe broke them into battalions,
and put a battalion in with each of the Kragan regiments. I think
they're more afraid of the Kragans than they are of the rebels."

He nodded. That was probably the best way to employ them, within the
existing situation. The trouble was, Them M'zangwe was incurably
tactical-minded. Put those geeks of Yoorkerk's in with the Kragans and
they'd be most useful in conquering Konkrook, but the trouble was
that, after associating with Kragans, they might develop into
reasonably good troops, themselves, to the undesired improvement of
King Yoorkerk's army. On the other hand, maybe not. Keep them in
Company service long enough, and they might want to forget about
Yoorkerk and stay there.

"How's the situation over in town?" he asked.

"Well, it's slowing up, since we began pulling