did something we badly wanted to! If we can keep it up--"

The Pretender said, "How is the food-supply on your ship? How long can
you feed your crew without supplies from some base?"

Bors swore. The question had the impact of a blow. His _Isis_, like the
rest of the fleet, had taken off from Kandar to fight and be destroyed.
There were emergency rations on board, of course. But the food-storage
compartments hadn't been filled. The fleet did not expect to go on
living, so it did not prepare to go on eating. It would have been absurd
to carry stores for months when they expected to live only hours. It
simply hadn't occurred to anyone to load provisions for a long operation
away from base.

"That's what the king is worrying about," said the Pretender. "We've
some thousands of men who will be hungry presently. If we reveal that we
survived the battle, Mekin's tributaries will begin to think. They might
even hope--which Mekin would have to stop immediately. If we do not
reveal that we still exist, what can be done about starving ship-crews?
It is a bad business. It would have been much better if the fleet had
been destroyed, as we expected, in a gesture of pure fury over its own
helplessness."

Bors said sardonically, "We can all commit suicide, of course!"

The Pretender did not answer. His nephew sank into a chair and glowered
at the wall. The situation was contrary to all the illusions cherished
by the human race. To act decently and with honor is somehow fitting to
a man and consistent with the nature of the universe, so that decency
and honor may prosper. But recent events denied it. Men who were willing
to die for their countrymen only injured them by the attempt. And now
the conduct which honor would approve turned upon them to bring the
consequences of treason and villainy.

A long time passed. Bors sat with clenched hands. It was the barbaric
insistence of Mekin upon conquest that was at fault, of course. But this
happens everywhere, as it has throughout all history. There are, really,
three kinds of people in every community, as there have always been.
There are the barbarians, and there are the tribesmen, and there are the
civilized. This was true when men lived on only one planet, and
doubtless was true when the first village was built. There were
civilized men even then. If there was progress, they brought it about.
And in every village there were, and are, tribesmen, men who placidly
accept the circumsta