‘Thank you,’ said De Forest; ’but we want our break-fasts, and I expect you do too.  Good-bye, Mr. Mayor!  Delighted to see you at any time, but I hope I shan’t have to, officially, for the next thirty years.  Good-bye, madam.  Yes.  We’re all given to nerves nowadays.  I suffer from them myself.  Good-bye, gentlemen all!  You’re under the tyrannous heel of the Board from this moment, but if ever you feel like breaking your fetters you’ve only to let us know.  This is no treat to us.  Good luck!’

We embarked amid shouts, and did not check our lift till they had dwindled into whispers.  Then De Forest flung himself on the chart-room divan and mopped his forehead.

‘I don’t mind men,’ he panted, ‘but women are the devil!’

‘Still the devil,’ said Pirolo cheerfully.  ’That one would have suicided.’

’I know it.  That was why I signalled for the flying loop to be clapped on her.  I owe you an apology for that, Arnott.  I hadn’t time to catch your eye, and you were busy with our caitiffs.  By the way, who actually answered my signal?  It was a smart piece of work.’

‘Ilroy,’ said Arnott; ’but he overloaded the wave.  It may be pretty gallery-work to knock a knife out of a lady’s hand, but didn’t you notice how she rubbed ’em?  He scorched her fingers.  Slovenly, I call it.’

’Far be it from me to interfere with Fleet discipline, but don’t be too hard on the boy.  If that woman had killed herself they would have killed every Servile and everything related to a Servile throughout the district by nightfall.’

‘That was what she was playing for,’ Takahira said.  ’And with our Fleet gone we could have done nothing to hold them.’

‘I may be ass enough to walk into a ground-circuit,’ said Arnott, ’but I don’t dismiss my Fleet till I’m reasonably sure that trouble is over.  They’re in position still, and I intend to keep ’em there till the Serviles are shipped out of the district.  That last little crowd meant murder, my friends.’

‘Nerves!  All nerves!’ said Pirolo.  ‘You cannot argue with agoraphobia.’

‘And it is not as if they had seen much dead—­or is it?’ said Takahira.

‘In all my ninety years I have never seen Death.’  Dragomiroff spoke as one who would excuse himself.  ‘Perhaps that was why—­last night—­’

Then it came out as we sat over breakfast, that, with the exception of Arnott and Pirolo, none of us had ever seen a corpse, or knew in what manner the spirit passes.

‘We’re a nice lot to flap about governing the Planet,’ De Forest laughed.  ’I confess, now it’s all over, that my main fear was I mightn’t be able to pull it off without losing a life.’

‘I thought of that too,’ said Arnott; ’but there’s no death reported, and I’ve inquired everywhere.  What are we supposed to do with our passengers?  I’ve fed ’em.’

‘We’re between two switches,’ De Forest drawled.  ’If we drop them in any place that isn’t under the Board the natives will make their presence an excuse for cutting out, same as Illinois did, and forcing the Board to take over.  If we drop them in any place under the Board’s control they’ll be killed as soon as our backs are turned.’