Channok winced. As a matter of fact, fencing _was_ a perfectly legitimate business on Dardrea. But a man who planned to enter the Imperial Secret Service, as soon as he could save up the money to pay his way through the Academy, couldn't afford any stains on his past! Throughout the Empire, the Service was renowned in song and story as the one body of men who stood above the suspicion of reproach. "The Duke won't know it's gone for another week," Peer consoled him. "Anyway, it looks to me as if those ships are beginning to pull off our course!" There followed some seconds of tense observation. "So they are," Channok acknowledged then. He mopped his forehead. "But I wish you wouldn't be quite so technical in your interpretation of local laws, Peer! Those babies are really traveling. Wonder who or what they're chasing?" Three days later, as the _Asteroid_ approached the area of the red giant sun of Old Nameless, where they were going to cache Santis' cargo for him--hot cargo, probably; and it would be a load off Channok's mind to get rid of it--they picked up the trail of the foundering spaceship _Ra-Twelve_ and found part of the answer on board. II "It seemed to me," Channok remarked, watching the _Ra-Twelve_ in the viewscreen before them, "as if her drives had cut off completely just then! But they're on again now. What do you think, crew-member Peer?" "Let's just follow her a bit," Peer suggested. "I've seen ships act like that that were just running out of juice. But this one won't even answer signals!" "It could be," Channok said hopefully, "a case of fair salvage! You might keep working the communicators, though...." However, the _Ra-Twelve_ continued to ignore them while she plodded on towards the distant red glare of the Nameless System like a blind, thirsty beast following its nose to a water-hole. Presently, she began a series of quavering zigzag motions, wandered aimlessly off her course, returned to it again on a few final puffs of invisible energy and at last went drifting off through space with her drives now obviously dead. The _Asteroid_ continued to follow at a discreet distance like a chunky vulture, watching. If there was anyone on board the _Ra-Twelve_, it almost had to be a ghost. Her rear lock was wide open, and the hull showed deep scars and marks of some recent space-action. "But she wasn't really badly hurt," Channok pointed out. "What do you suppose could have happened to her crew?" Peer gave him a nervous grin. "Maybe a space-ghost came on board!" "You don't really believe those spooky voyageur stories, do you?" he said tolerantly. "Sure I do--and so will you some day!" Peer promised him. "I'll tell you a few true ones just before your next sleep-period!"