. Maybe that point weighed with Cliff, maybe he
just didn't care. Anyway the three were together when they sighted the
_Empress_ riding, her dead-lights gleaming, a ghost ship in night space.

She must have been an eerie sight because her other lights were on too,
in addition to the red warnings at her nose. She seemed alive, a Flying
Dutchman of space. Cliff worked his ship skillfully alongside and had no
trouble in snapping magnetic lines to her lock. Some minutes later the
three of them passed into her. There was still air in her cabins and
corridors. Air that bore a faint corrupt taint which set Bat to sniffing
greedily and could be picked up even by the less sensitive human
nostrils.

Cliff headed straight for the control cabin but Steena and Bat went
prowling. Closed doors were a challenge to both of them and Steena
opened each as she passed, taking a quick look at what lay within. The
fifth door opened on a room which no woman could leave without further
investigation.

I don't know who had been housed there when the _Empress_ left port on
her last lengthy cruise. Anyone really curious can check back on the old
photo-reg cards. But there was a lavish display of silks trailing out of
two travel kits on the floor, a dressing table crowded with crystal and
jeweled containers, along with other lures for the female which drew
Steena in. She was standing in front of the dressing table when she
glanced into the mirror--glanced into it and froze.

Over her right shoulder she could see the spider-silk cover on the bed.
Right in the middle of that sheer, gossamer expanse was a sparkling heap
of gems, the dumped contents of some jewel case. Bat had jumped to the
foot of the bed and flattened out as cats will, watching those gems,
watching them and--something else!

Steena put out her hand blindly and caught up the nearest bottle. As she
unstoppered it she watched the mirrored bed. A gemmed bracelet rose from
the pile, rose in the air and tinkled its siren song. It was as if an
idle hand played.... Bat spat almost noiselessly. But he did not
retreat. Bat had not yet decided his course.

She put down the bottle. Then she did something which perhaps few of the
men she had listened to through the years could have done. She moved
without hurry or sign of disturbance on a tour about the room. And,
although she approached the bed she did not touch the jewels. She could
not force herself to that. It took her five minutes to p