the passage. The girl, too, was caught, though she fought and
bit.

"Lights! Let's have some lights!" commanded an authoritative voice.

"Coming, sir!" came a far-away answer.

The passage became bright, and Quirl looked into the faces of his
captors, in the uniforms of the I.F.P.

"Got you, you dirty pirate!" gloated the husky young man on his chest.

"Mike!" Quirl gasped, "don't you know me? How'd you get here?"

"Dog-gone! Finner! Leggo his legs, you eggs."

"Trailed you," he added. "Glommed our magnets on the navigating bow.
Expected a fight, but some big guy let us in through an airlock. Well,
he'd done plenty of scrapping--all the clothes torn off him. Half a
dozen dead pirates in there. Who is he?"

Quirl thought of the stiffening body of Lieutenant Burroughs, alias
Captain Strom, who had just purchased his life and that of Lenore at
the cost of his own. Was his undeserved shame now to follow him to
his grave? Quirl was no lawyer, and he decided not to take any chances
with the law's mercy. He said:

"I don't know his name. A prisoner from some other ship, I think. He
was very homesick for Earth, and I'll see he gets a decent grave on
Earth. He died to save me."

"As for the lady," he added, "let her go. She's a captive. And,
anyway, I think she is the future Mrs. Quirl Finner."

She smiled, and the men of the Force looked somewhat enviously at
Quirl.

"Say," Quirl said, taking Lenore's hand and anxious to be rid of them,
"if you find a little monkey-faced guy down in that hold, go easy with
him. He's a good man, too, and I'm going to recommend his pardon."

* * * * *

End of Project Gutenberg's In the Orbit of Saturn, by Roman Frederick Starzl

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