of fury
followed him. It was evidently the opinion of the castle that the Lady
Fani was to be abducted in the place of the seven returned spearmen.

Hoddan, breathing hard, reached the spaceboat. He put Fani down and said
anxiously:

"You're all right? I'm very much in your debt! I was in a spot!" Then he
nodded toward the castle. "They are upset, aren't they? They must think
I mean to kidnap you."

The Lady Fani beamed.

"It would be terrible if you did," she said hopefully. "I couldn't do a
thing to stop you! And a successful public abduction's a legal marriage,
on Darth! Wouldn't it be terrible?"

Hoddan mopped his face and patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Don't worry!" he said warmly. "You just got me out of an awful fix!
You're my friend! And anyhow I'm going to marry a girl on Walden, named
Nedda. Good-by, Fani! Keep clear of the rocket blast."

He went into the boatport, turned to beam paternally back at her, and
shut the port behind him. Seconds later the spaceboat took off. It left
behind clouds of rocket smoke.

And, though Hoddan hadn't the faintest idea of it, it left behind the
maddest girl in several solar systems.

X

It is the custom of all men, everywhere, to be obtuse where women are
concerned. Hoddan went skyward in the spaceboat with feelings of warm
gratitude toward the Lady Fani. He had not the slightest inkling that
she, who had twice spoiled her father's skulduggery so far as it
affected him, felt any but the friendliest of feelings toward him. He
remembered that he had kept her from the necessity of adjusting to
matrimony with the Lord Ghek. It did not occur to him that most girls
intend to adjust to marriage with somebody, anyhow, and he did not even
suspect that it is a feminine instinct to make a highly dramatic and
romantic production of their marriage so they'll have something to be
sentimental about in later years.

As Hoddan drove on up and up, the sky became deep purple and then black
velvet set with flecks of fire. He was relieved by the welcome he'd
received earlier today from the emigrants, but he remained slightly
puzzled by a very faint impression of desperation remaining. He felt
very virtuous on the whole, however, and his plans for the future were
specific. He'd already composed a letter to his grandfather, which he'd
ask the emigrant fleet to deliver. He had another letter in his mind--a
form letter, practically a public-relations circular--which