with private
orders to supersede him in command if necessary, and Guatt Kirbey
to do the astrogating.

"We'll have to take the _Nemesis_ and the _Space Scourge_ out,
first, and make a big raid," Harkaman said. "We can't send the
_Space Scourge_ back to Gram empty. When Baron Rathmore and Lord
Valpry and the rest of them talk to Duke Angus and the Tanith
investors, they'll have to have a lot more than some travel films
of Tanith. They'll have to be able to show that Tanith is producing.
We ought to have a little money of our own to invest, too."

"But, Otto; both ships?" That worried Trask. "Suppose Dunnan comes
and finds nobody here but Spasso and the _Lamia_?"

"Chance we'll have to take. Personally, I think we have a year to a
year and a half before Dunnan shows up here. I know, we were fooled
trying to guess what he'd do before. But the sort of raid I have in
mind, we'll need two ships, and in any case, I don't want to leave
both those ships here while we're gone, even if you do."

"When it comes to that, I don't think I do, either. But we can't
trust Spasso here alone, can we?"

"We'll leave enough of our people to make sure. We'll leave
Alvyn--that'll mean a lot of work for me that he'd otherwise do,
on the ship. And Baron Rathmore, and young Valpry, and the men
who've been training our sepoys. We can shuffle things around and
leave some of Valkanhayn's men in place of some of Spasso's. We might
even talk Spasso into going along. That'll mean having to endure him
at our table, but it would be wise."

"Have you picked a place to raid?"

"Three of them. First, Khepera. That's only thirty light-years from
here. That won't amount to much; just chicken-stealing. It'll give
our green hands some relatively safe combat-training, and it'll give
us some idea of how Spasso's and Valkanhayn's people behave, and
give them confidence for the next job."

"And then?"

"Amaterasu. My information about Amaterasu is about twenty years
old. A lot of things can happen in twenty years. All I know of it--I
was never there myself--is it's fairly civilized--about like Terra
just before the beginning of the Atomic Era. No nuclear energy, they
lost that, and of course nothing beyond it, but they have hydroelectric
and solarelectric power, and nonnuclear jet aircraft, and some very good
chemical-explosive weapons, which they use very freely on each other.
It was last known to have been raided by a ship from Excalibur
twenty years