at's her screen-combination?"

Koreff's voice gave it, and Harkaman punched it out. The
communication screen in front of them lit at once; Trask shoved over
his chair beside Harkaman's, his hands tightening on the arms. Would
it be Dunnan himself, and what would his face show when he saw who
confronted him out of his own screen?

It took him an instant to realize that the other ship was not the
_Enterprise_ at all. The _Enterprise_ was the _Nemesis'_ twin; her
command room was identical with his own. This one was different in
arrangements and fittings. The _Enterprise_ was a new ship; this one
was old, and had suffered for years at the hands of a slack captain
and a slovenly crew.

And the man who sat facing him in the screen was not Andray Dunnan,
or any man he had ever seen before. A dark-faced man, with an old
scar that ran down one cheek from a little below the eye; he had
curly black hair, on his head and on a V of chest exposed by an open
shirt. There was an ashtray in front of him, and a thin curl of
smoke rose from a cigar in it, and coffee steamed in an ornate but
battered silver cup beside it. He was grinning gleefully.

"Well! Captain Harkaman, of the _Enterprise_, I believe! Welcome
to Tanith. Who's the gentleman with you? He isn't the Duke of
Wardshaven, is he?"

VIII

He glanced quickly at the showback over the screen, to assure
himself that his face was not betraying him. Beside him, Otto
Harkaman was laughing.

"Why, Captain Valkanhayn; this is an unexpected pleasure. That's
the _Space Scourge_ you're in, I take it? What are you doing here
on Tanith?"

A voice from one of the speakers shouted that a second ship had
been detected coming over the north pole. The dark-faced man in
the screen smirked quite complacently.

"That's Garvan Spasso, in the _Lamia_," he said. "And what we're
doing here, we've taken this planet over. We intend keeping it, too."

"Well! So you and Garvan have teamed up. You two were just made for
one another. And you have a little planet, all your very own. I'm so
happy for both of you. What are you getting out of it--beside poultry?"

The other's self-assurance started to slip. He slapped it back into place.

"Don't kid me; we know why you're here. Well, we got here first.
Tanith is our planet. You think you can take it away from us?"

"I know we could, and so do you," Harkaman told him. "We outgun you
and Spasso together; why, a couple of our pinnaces could