t went into the cargo holds was practically taking a
free ride, so anything on hand, stuff that nobody would ordinarily
think of shipping in interstellar trade, went aboard. A two thousand
foot freighter had a great deal of cargo space.

Baron Trask of Traskon hadn't even begun to realise what Tanith base
was going to cost Gram.

[Illustration][Illustration]

XVII

As might be expected, the Beowulfers finished their hypership first.
They had started with everything but a little know-how which had
been quickly learned. Amaterasu had had to begin by creating the
industry they needed to create the industry they needed to build a
ship. The Beowulf ship--she was named _Viking's Gift_--came in on
Tanith five and a half years after the _Nemesis_ and the _Space
Scourge_ had raided Beowulf; her skipper had fought a normal-drive
ship in that battle. Beside plutonium and radioactive isotopes, she
carried a general cargo of the sort of luxury-goods unique to
Beowulf which could always find a market in interstellar trade.

After selling the cargo and depositing the money in the Bank of
Tanith, the skipper of the _Viking's Gift_ wanted to know where
he could find a good planet to raid. They gave him a list, none
too tough but all slightly above the chicken-stealing level, and
another list of planets he was _not_ to raid; planets with which
Tanith was trading.

Six months later they learned that he had showed up on Khepera, with
which they were now trading, and had flooded the market there with
plundered textiles, hardware, ceramics and plastics. He had bought
kregg-meat and hides.

"You see what you did, now?" Harkaman clamored. "You thought you
were making a customer; what you made was a competitor."

"What I made was an ally. If we ever do find Dunnan's planet, we'll
need a fleet to take it. A couple of Beowulf ships would help. You
know them; you fought them, too."

Harkaman had other worries. While cruising in _Corisande II_, he had
come in on Vitharr, one of the planets where Tanith ships traded, to
find it being raided by a Space Viking ship based on Xochitl. He had
fought a short but furious ship-action, battering the invader until
he was glad to hyper out. Then he had gone directly to Xochitl,
arriving on the heels of the ship he had beaten, and had had it out
both with the captain and Prince Viktor, serving them with an
ultimatum to leave Tanith trade-planets alone in the future.

"How did they take it?