culiar actions? How does that tie in?"

"Did you ever hear of Lysodine, Captain?"

Captain Quill leaned back in his chair and looked up at Mike. "No. What
is it?"

"That's the trade name for a very powerful drug--a derivative of
lysurgic acid. It's used in treating certain mental ailments. A bottle
of it was missing from Mellon's kit, according to the inventory Chief
Pasteur took after Mellon's death.

"The symptoms of an overdose of the drug--administered orally--are
hallucinations and delusions amounting to acute paranoia. The final
result of the drug's effect on the brain is death. It wasn't my blow to
the solar plexus, or the sedative that Pasteur gave him, or Vaneski's
shot with a stun gun that killed Mellon. It was an overdose of
Lysodine."

"Can the presence of this drug be detected after death?"

"Pasteur says it can. He won't even have to perform an autopsy. He can
do it from a blood sample."

Captain Quill sighed. "As I said, Mister Gabriel, your evidence is not
quite enough to convict--but it is certainly enough to convince.
Therefore, if Chief Pasteur's analysis shows Lysodine in Lieutenant
Mellon's body, I'll permit this theatrical denouement." Then his eyes
hardened. "Mike, you've done a fine job so far. I want you to bring me
that son of a bitch's head on a platter."

"I will," promised Mike the Angel.

23

Captain Sir Henry Quill, Bart., stood at the head of the long table in
the officers' wardroom and looked everyone over. The way he did it was
quite impressive. His eyes were narrowed, and his heavy, thick, black
brows dominated his face. Beneath the glow plates in the overhead, his
pink scalp gleamed with the soft, burnished shininess of a well-polished
apple.

To his left, in order down the table, were Mike the Angel, Lieutenant
Keku, and Leda Crannon. On his right were Commander Jeffers, Ensign
Vaneski, Lieutenant Commander von Liegnitz, and Dr. Morris Fitzhugh.
Lieutenant Mellon's seat was empty.

Black Bart cleared his throat. "It's been quite a trip, hasn't it? Well,
it's almost over. Mister Gabriel finished the conversion of the power
plant yesterday; Treadmore's men can finish up. We will leave on the
_Fireball_ in a few hours.

"But there is something that must be cleared up first.

"A man died on the way out here. The circumstances surrounding his death
have been cleared up now, and I feel that we all deserve an
explanation." He turned to Mike the Angel. "Mister Gabr