nd no means of steering the ship. I was set
adrift in a derelict on a lonely orbit of exile around the sun--the
man without a planet!

* * * * *

"Picture that, lad. That rusty, dead old cylinder, coursing around and
around the sun, and inside, sitting on his bales and boxes, a young
man like you. A young man in the pride and prime of his life,
expiating the treason that had betrayed him. Day after day, through
the thick ports, I saw the same changeless scene. And every two years,
when I drew near the Earth, I watched the beautiful green ball of it,
with what bitter longings! As I watched it dwindle away again into
the blackness of space, I thought of the fortunate, selfish, stupid
and cruel beings who lived on it, and hated them. They had banished
me, an innocent man, to whirl forever and ever around the sun, in my
steel tomb!

"But that cruel judgment was never executed. Seven years ago this Gore
found me. He is an escaped convict, and he came in a little five-man
rocket he had stolen. We loaded up all of the supplies the little ship
would hold, for Gore had no food, and escaped to Titan, landing on an
island on the side opposite to where the mines are.

"Gore wanted to become a pirate, and as he could get men, I consented.
He scraped them up, fugitives from justice, every one of them. We
built this ship, and I invented the invisibility field of force--"

"Just a moment," Quirl interrupted, vastly interested. "I saw your
ship through the ports that day."

"True. The presence of your ship in the field distorted it so much
that it was ineffective. But at all other times--right now--we are
utterly invisible. One of the I.F.P. patrols may pass within a mile of
us and never see us.

"As we raided the interplanetary commerce, I began to weed out the
people we captured. Those that showed the highest intelligence, sense
of justice and physical perfection I selected to be the nucleus of a
new race, to be kept on Titan for a time and then to be transplanted
to a new planet of one of the nearer solar systems.

"My principal trouble is with the crew. They can collect ransom only
on those I reject, and there are constant clashes between me and Gore.
It is now my intention to let them go their way, and to fit out a new
ship, with a new crew. I offer you the place of first mate."

"No!" Quirl replied crisply. "You say you understand the honor of the
Force, and then offer me a job pirating wi