clere. They are commanded
by King Konrad's Space Viking cousin, the Prince of Xochitl."

Then a look of shocked surprise came into the face of the man in the
screen, and Trask wondered why, until he realized that he had leaned
back in his chair and was laughing uproariously. Before he could
apologize, the man in the screen had found his voice.

"I know, Prince Trask; you have no reason to think kindly of King
Angus--the former King Angus, or maybe even the late King Angus,
I suppose he is now--but a murderer like Omfray of Glaspyth...."

* * * * *

It took a little time to explain to the confidential secretary of
the Duke of Bigglersport the humor of the situation.

There were others at Rivington to whom it was not immediately
evident. The professional Space Vikings, men like Valkanhayn and
Ravallo and Alvyn Karffard, were disgusted. Here they'd been
sitting, on combat alert, all these months, and, if they'd only
known, they could have gone to Xochitl and looted it clean long ago.
The Gram party were outraged. Angus of Wardshaven had been bad
enough, with the hereditary taint of the Mad Baron of Blackcliffe,
and Queen Evita and her rapacious family, but even he was preferable
to a murderous villain--some even called him a fiend in human
shape--like Omfray of Glaspyth.

Both parties, of course, were positive as to where their Prince's
duty lay. The former insisted that everything on Tanith that could
be put into hyperspace should be dispatched at once to Xochitl, to
haul back from it everything except a few absolutely immovable
natural features of the planet. The latter clamored, just as loudly
and passionately, that everybody on Tanith who could pull a trigger
should be embarked at once on a crusade for the deliverance of Gram.

[Illustration]

"You don't want to do either, do you?" Harkaman asked him, when they
were alone after the second day of acrimony.

"Nifflheim, no! This crowd that wants an attack on Xochitl; you know
what would happen if we did that?" Harkaman was silent, waiting for
him to continue. "Inside a year, four or five of these small
planet-holders like Gratham and the Everrards would combine against
us and make a slag-pile out of Tanith."

Harkaman nodded agreement. "Since we warned him the first time,
Viktor's kept his ships away from our planets. If we attacked
Xochitl now, without provocation, nobody'd know what to expect from
us. People like Nikky Gratha