have had an excellent upbringing, young man, to be willing to live among
the poverty-stricken people you describe, and to be willing to go so far
to help strangers like ourselves."

"Eh?" Then Hoddan said enigmatically, "What lessons I shall apply to
your affairs, I learned at the knee of my beloved grandfather."

* * * * *

Of course, his grandfather was head of the most notorious gang of
pirates on the disreputable planet Zan, but Hoddan found himself
increasingly respecting the old gentleman as he gained experience of
various worlds.

He went briskly back to his spaceboat. On the way he made verbal
arrangements for the enterprise he'd envisioned so swiftly. It was
remarkable how two sets of troubles could provide suggestions for their
joint alleviation. He actually saw possible achievement before him. Even
in electronics!

By the time the cargo space was again pumped empty and the great door
opened to the vastness of space, Hoddan had a very broad view of things.
He'd said that same day to Fani that a practical man can always make
what he wants to do look like a sacrifice of his personal inclinations
to others' welfare. He began to suspect, now, that the welfare of others
can often coincide with one's own.

He needed some rather extensive changes in the relationship of the
cosmos to himself. Walden was prepared to pay bribes for him. Don Loris
felt it necessary to have him confined somewhere. There were a number of
Darthian gentlemen who would assuredly like to slaughter him if he
wasn't kept out of their reach in some cozy dungeon. But up to now
there had been not even a practical way to leave Darth, to act upon
Walden, or even to change his status in the eyes of Darthians.

He backed out of the big ship and consulted the charts of the lifeboat.
They had been consulted before, of course, to locate the landing grid
which did not answer calls. He found its position. He began to compare
the chart with what he saw from out here in orbit above Darth. He
identified a small ocean, with Darth's highest mountain chain just
beyond its eastern limit. He identified a river-system, emptying into
that sea. And here he began to get rid of his excess velocity, because
the landing grid was not very far distant--some fifteen hundred or two
thousand miles.

To a scientific pilot, his maneuvering from that time on would have been
a complex task. The advantage of computation over astrogation by e