n bitter frustration.

Bors got up from his seat to loosen his muscles. He had sat absolutely
tense and effectively motionless for a very long time. He ached. But he
felt a sour sort of satisfaction. For a ship of the _Isis's_ class to
have challenged a battleship to combat, to have deliberately and
insultingly waited for it to choose its own battle-distance, and then to
let it launch its missiles first.... It was no ambush! Bors did not
feel ashamed of this fight. He'd acted according to the instincts of a
fighting man who gives his enemy the chance to use what weapons the
enemy has chosen, and then defeats him.

His second-in-command said, "Sir, the cargo-boat blip is gone. It should
be in overdrive now, sir, heading for Glamis."

"Then we'll follow it," said Bors. Suddenly he realized how his
second-in-command must feel. The landing-party'd seen action--for which
Bors envied them--and he'd felt ashamed because he stayed in the ship in
what he considered safety while they risked their lives. But his
second-in-command had had no share in the achievement at all. Bors had
handled all controls and given all orders, even the routine ones, since
before Tralee.

"I think," said Bors, "I'll have a cup of coffee. Will you take over and
head for Glamis?"

He left the control-room, to let his subordinate handle things for a
time. He'd seated himself in the mess-room when the voice of his
second-in-command came through the speakers.

"_Going into overdrive_," said the voice. "_All steady. Five, four,
three, two--_"

Bors prepared to wince. He put down his coffee cup and held himself
ready for the sickening sensation.

Suddenly there was the rasping, snaring crackling of a high-voltage
spark. There were shouts. There were explosions and the reek of
overheated metal and smoldering insulation. Then the compartment-doors
closed.

When Bors had examined the damage, and the emergency-purifiers had taken
the smoke and smell out of the air, his second-in-command looked
suicidally gloomy.

"It's bad business," said Bors wryly. "Very bad business! But I should
have mentioned it to you. I didn't think of it. I wouldn't have thought
of it if I'd been doing the overdrive business myself."

The second-in-command said bitterly;

"But I knew you'd tried the new low-power overdrive! I knew it!"

"I left it switched in," said Bors, "because I thought we might use it
in the fight with the battleship. But we didn't."

"I should ha