But Jellico spoke to Groft.  “By our customs we do not kill the conquered.  Let his friends bear him hence.”  He took the claw knife the Eysie still clutched in his hand and thrust it into his own belt.  Then he faced the I-S party and Kallee.

“Take your man and get out!” The rein he had kept on his temper these past days was growing very thin.  “You’ve made your last play here.”

Kallee’s thick lips drew back in something close to a Salarik snarl.  But neither he nor his men made any reply.  They bundled up their unconscious fighter and disappeared.

Of their own return to the sanctuary of the Queen Dane had only the dimmest of memories afterwards.  He had made the privacy of the forest road before he yielded to the demands of his outraged interior.  And after that he had stumbled along with Van Rycke’s hand under his arm, knowing from other miserable sounds that he was not alone in his torment.

It was some time later, months he thought when he first roused, that he found himself lying in his bunk, feeling very weak and empty as if a large section of his middle had been removed, but also at peace with his world.  As he levered himself up the cabin had a nasty tendency to move slowly to the right as if he were a pivot on which it swung, and he had all the sensations of being in free fall though the Queen was still firmly planeted.  But that was only a minor discomfort compared to the disturbance he remembered.

Fed the semi-liquid diet prescribed by Tau and served up by Mura to him and his fellow sufferers, he speedily got back his strength.  But it had been a close call, he did not need Tau’s explanation to underline that.  Weeks had suffered the least of the four, he the most—­though none of them had had an easy time.  And they had been out of circulation three days.

“The Eysie blasted last night,” Rip informed him as they lounged in the sun on the ramp, sharing the blessed lazy hours of invalidism.

But somehow that news gave Dane no lift of spirit.  “I didn’t think they’d give up—­”

Rip shrugged.  “They may be off to make a dust-off before the Board.  Only, thanks to Van and the Old Man, we’re covered all along the line.  There’s nothing they can use against us to break our contract.  And now we’re in so solid they can’t cut us out with the Salariki.  Groft asked the Captain to teach him that trick with the net.  I didn’t know the Old Man knew Lalox whip fighting—­it’s about one of the nastiest ways to get cut to pieces in this universe—­”

“How’s trade going?”

Rip’s sunniness clouded.  “Supplies have given out.  Weeks had an idea—­but it won’t bring in Koros.  That red wood he’s so mad about, he’s persuaded Van to stow some in the cargo holds since we have enough Koros stones to cover the voyage.  Luckily the clansmen will take ordinary trade goods in exchange for that and Weeks thinks it will sell on Terra.  It’s tough enough to turn a steel knife blade and yet it is light and easy to handle when it’s cured.  Queer stuff and the color’s interesting.  That stockade of it planted around Groft’s town has been up close to a hundred years and not a sign of rot in a log of it!”