touch, to pat, to assure him of their gratitude and
affection, minutes since they'd thirsted for his blood.

Two hours after the first ship, a second landed. Dara went wild again.
Four hours later still, the third arrived. The fourth came down to
ground on the following day.

When Calhoun faced the executive and cabinet of Dara for the second
time his tone and manner were very dry.

"Now," he said curtly, "I would like a few more astrogators to train.
I think it likely that we can raid the Wealdian grain fleet one more
time, and in so doing get the beginning of a fleet for defense. I
insist, however, that it must not be used in combat. We might as well
be sensible about this situation! After all, four shiploads of grain
won't break the famine! They'll help a lot, but they're only the
beginning of what's needed for a planetary population!"

"How much grain can we hope for?" demanded a man with a blue mark
covering all his chin.

Calhoun told him.

"How long before Weald can have a fleet overhead, dropping fusion
bombs?" demanded another, grimly.

Calhoun named a time. But then he said, "I think we can keep them from
dropping bombs if we can get the grain fleet and some capable
astrogators."

"How?"

He told them. It was not possible to tell the whole story of what he
considered sensible behavior. An emotional program can be presented
and accepted immediately. A plan of action which is actually
intelligent, considering all elements of a situation, has to be
accepted piecemeal. Even so, the military men growled.

"We've plenty of heavy elements," said one. "If we'd used our brains,
we'd have more bombs than Weald can hope for! We could turn that whole
planet into a smoking cinder!"

"Which," said Calhoun acidly, "would give you some satisfaction but
not an ounce of food! And food's more important than satisfaction.
Now, I'm going to take off for Weald again. I'll want somebody to
build an emergency device for my ship, and I'll want the four pilots
I've trained and twenty more candidates. And I'd like to have some
decent rations! The last trip brought back two million bushels of
grain. You can certainly spare adequate food for twenty men for a few
days!"

It took some time to get the special device constructed, but the Med
Ship lifted in two days more. The device for which it had waited was
simply a preventive of the disaster overtaking the ship from the mine
on Orede. It was essentially a tank of liquid o