Dane heard the pad of his feet on the ladder—­apparently the cub was making sure of escape with his precious find.  But the Cargo-master apprentice was frowning.  As far as he could see there were only five of the plants.

“That’s all the catnip you have?”

Mura tucked Sinbad under his arm and shooed Dane before him out of the hydro.  “There was no need to grow more.  A small portion of the herb goes a long way with this one,” he put the cat down in the corridor.  “The leaves may be preserved by drying.  I believe that there is a small box of them in the galley.”

A strictly limited supply.  Suppose this was the key which would unlock the Koros trade?  And yet it was to be summed up in five plants and a few dried leaves!  However, Van Rycke must know of this as soon as possible.

But to Dane’s growing discomfiture the Cargo-master showed no elation as his junior poured out the particulars of his discovery.  Instead there were definite signs of displeasure to be read by those who knew Van Rycke well.  He heard Dane out and then got to his feet.  Tolling the younger man with him by a crooked finger, he went out of his combined office-living quarters to the domain of Medic Craig Tau.

“Problem for you, Craig.”  Van Rycke seated his bulk on the wall jump seat Tau pulled down for him.  Dane was left standing just within the door, very sure now that instead of being commended for his discovery of a few minutes before, he was about to suffer some reprimand.  And the reason for it still eluded him.

“What do you know about that plant Mura grows in the hydro—­the one called ’catnip’?”

Tau did not appear surprised at that demand—­the Medic of a Free Trading spacer was never surprised at anything.  He had his surfeit of shocks during his first years of service and after that accepted any occurrence, no matter how weird, as matter-of-fact.  In addition Tau’s hobby was “magic,” the hidden knowledge possessed and used by witch doctors and medicine men on alien worlds.  He had a library of recordings, odd scraps of information, of certified results of certain very peculiar experiments.  Now and then he wrote a report which was sent into Central Service, read with raised eyebrows by perhaps half a dozen incredulous desk warmers, and filed away to be safely forgotten.  But even that had ceased to frustrate him.

“It’s an herb of the mint family from Terra,” he replied.  “Mura grows it for Sinbad—­has quite a marked influence on cats.  Frank’s been trying to keep him anchored to the ship by allowing him to roll in fresh leaves.  He does it—­then continues to sneak out whenever he can—­”

That explained something for Dane—­why the Salariki cub wished to enter the Queen tonight.  Some of the scent of the plant had clung to Sinbad’s fur, had been detected, and the Salarik had wanted to trace it to its source.

“Is it a drug?” Van Rycke prodded.

“In the way that all herbs are drugs.  Human beings have dosed themselves in the past with a tea made of the dried leaves.  It has no great medicinal properties.  To felines it is a stimulation—­and they get the same satisfaction from rolling in and eating the leaves as we do from drinking—­”