k in shape to travel on her lawful occasions among the
stars, and to see that she and her passengers and crew got to the
destination for which they'd started. The cop's purpose was essentially
routine. And the Huks couldn't possibly imagine it.

Sergeant Madden settled some things in his mind and dozed off again.

When the squad ship came out of overdrive and he was awakened by the
unpleasantness of breakout, he yawned. He looked on without comment as
Patrolman Willis matter-of-factly performed the tricky task of
determining the ecliptic while a solar system's sun was little more than
a first-magnitude star. It was wholly improbable that anything like Huk
patrol ships would be out so far. It was even more improbable that any
kind of detection devices would be in operation. Any approaching ship
could travel several times as fast as any signal.

Patrolman Willis searched painstakingly. He found a planet which was a
mere frozen lump of matter in vastness. It was white from a layer of
frozen gases piled upon its more solid core. He made observations.

"I can find it again, sir, to meet the _Aldeb_. Orders, sir?"

"Orders?" demanded Sergeant Madden. "What? Oh. Head in toward the sun.
The Huks'll be on Planet Three or Four, most likely. And that's where
they'll have the _Cerberus_."

The squad ship continued sunward while Patrolman Willis continued his
observations. A star-picture along the ecliptic. An hour's run on
interplanetary drive--no overdrive field in use. Another picture. The
two prints had only to be compared with a blinker for planets to stick
out like sore thumbs, as contrasted with stars that showed no parallax.
Sirene I--the innermost planet--was plainly close to a transit. II was
away on the far side of its orbit. III was also on the far side. IV was
in quadrature. There was the usual gap where V should have been. VI--it
didn't matter. They'd passed VIII a little while since, a ball of stone
with a frigid gas-ice covering.

Patrolman Willis worked painstakingly with amplifiers on what oddments
could be picked up in space.

"It's Four, sir," he reported unnecessarily, because the sergeant had
watched as he worked. "They've got detectors out. I could just barely
pick up the pulses. But by the time they've been reflected back they'll
be away below thermal noise-volume. I don't think even multiples could
pick 'em out. I'm saying, sir, that I don't think they can detect us at
this distance."

Sergeant Mad