head as if to clear it.

"It seems to have worked," he admitted. "But if I'd known--" He spread
out his hands. "I'll play along! What more can you do for us?"

"I've no idea," said Morgan placidly. "Such things have to work
themselves out, with a little prodding, of course. But one of my Talents
says the lightning-calculator Talent is the one who'll do you the most
good soonest. I'd suggest--"

There was a murmur of voices from the cabinet room. The door opened and
King Humphrey came out. He looked baffled, which was not unusual. But he
looked enraged, which was.

"Bors!" he said thickly. "I've always thought I was a practical man! But
if being practical means what some members of my cabinet think, I would
rather be a poet! Bors, do something before my cabinet dethrones me and
tricks the fleet into disbanding!"

He stumbled across the room, not noticing Morgan or Gwenlyn. Bors came
to attention.

"Majesty," he said, not knowing whether he spoke in irony or
bewilderment, "I take that as an order."

The king did not answer. When the door on the other side of the room
closed behind his unregal figure, Bors turned to Morgan.

"I think I've been given authority," he said in a sort of baffled calm.
"Suppose we go, Mr. Morgan, and find out what your lightning calculator
can do in the way of mental arithmetic, to change the situation of the
kingdom?"

"Fine!" said Morgan cheerfully. "D'you know, Captain Bors, he can solve
a three-body problem in his head? He hasn't the least idea how he does
it, but the answer always comes out right!" Then he said exuberantly,
"He'll tell you something useful, though! That's Talents, Incorporated
information!"

Chapter 3

There was a fleet on the way to Kandar. It could not be said to be
traveling in space, of course. If there had been an observer somewhere,
he could not conceivably have detected the ships. There would be no
occultations of stars; no blotting out of any of the hundreds and
thousands of millions of bright specks which filled all the firmament.
There would be no drive-radiation which even the most sensitive of
instruments could pick up. The fleet might be at one place to an
observer's right--where it was imperceptible--and then it might be at a
place to the observer's left--where it was undetectable--and nobody
could have told the difference.

Actually, each ship of the Mekinese fleet was in overdrive, which meant
that each had stressed the space immediat