he base. You will be held responsible for the smooth operation and
successful accomplishment of this undertaking. These orders are
effective immediately."

Commander Morgan smiled.

"Send this reply immediately," he said to his aide. "Open code.
Commander, Base Q, to General Staff, Highest urgency. Acknowledge
receipt recent orders regarding protocol revising Treaty of Porran.
Regret unable to comply. Due to recent argument over interpretation of
Treaty of Porran, Fourth Fleet, Combine, no longer exists. Request
further orders."

He laughed.

On earth, the officer who took the message gaped at it. Seizing a
telephone, he dictated it to the Old Man's aide. But when the Old Man
saw it, he only smiled, coldly.

And his smile was bleak and cold, too, when he laid it before the
President and the Cabinet an hour later. Shortly afterwards, when the
President broadcast it to the people, they sat, stunned. It was not
until the next day that they finally read its significance and started
celebrating. But the Old Man had ceased smiling by that time, and was
planning possible future battles.

* * * * *

A month later, Morgan sat again in the Old Man's office. Having
presented his report and swallowed the unpleasant pill that, as he was
now a hero, there were speeches to make and banquets to be bored at, he
was talking informally.

"What I can't understand, sir, is why they came in. They only had to
wait a couple of hours and the whole kit and caboodle would have been
dumped in their laps. Yet they come barging in and give us exactly the
opening we want. I don't get it."

"That _is_ an interesting question," the Old Man replied with a shadow
of a twinkle. "You might almost think they had intercepted an order I
sent to our Intelligence Officer, on Q, to sabotage the Converter if the
protocol was signed."

The Commander jumped. "Was that order given, sir?"

"Yes, it was. But it was countermanded an hour later. Different channel,
however. I remembered they had broken the code of the first channel."

He paused a moment. "That illustrates a good point to remember, Morgan.
You intercept enemy messages and break their code. A very useful trick.
Also very dangerous, if the enemy discovers you have broken it, and you
don't know that he knows. Very dangerous, indeed."

The young man laughed. The older one smiled, bleakly.

As Morgan looked out the window, he saw the public news-casters spelling