"Ho ho! Tough, he says!" The red-headed man slapped his knee. "The next time you try it, install some gravity plates and don't expect to defy the laws of nature. You would have been in a fine pickle if the patrol hadn't spotted your flaring jets and put a scanner on you." "I'm hungry," Lanya said suddenly. The space-pilot laughed. "She's hungry! Say, you two didn't blast off on an empty stomach on top of everything else?" He groaned as Virgil nodded his head sheepishly. Lanya accepted the big man's proffered hand and followed him into the galley. The fright and confusion left her as the pleasant savor of food filled her nostrils. She ate hungrily but with proper lady-like delicacy. "Where are we going?" she asked. "Home," the big space-dog said. "Oh. But aren't you going to arrest us, or something?" Lanya made her eyes big and round to show her apprehension. "Well, ordinarily I would. But I think you two have had enough for the time being. You look fairly intelligent to me. Do you think you've learned anything from this crazy expedition?" "Identification, communication and gravity plates," Virgil muttered. "Oh, yes!" Lanya cried quickly. "We'll never do it again. Absolutely never!" She gave an inward sigh of relief as she saw that the man hadn't heard Virgil's careless remark. Outside the quartz viewport the flat plane of red Martian desert was growing swiftly larger. * * * * * "Why did you do it? Why?" Klee demanded tearfully. They were seated about the dead and silent telescreen. It was a crucial moment. They could not abandon their principles now. "We were going to Earth," Virgil said obstinately, "because you always break your promise to take us!" He looked extremely self-righteous as he spoke his feelings at last. Lanya, inspired by this unexpected outburst, plunged recklessly, "All the other kids have aircraft and we don't have anything! You never listen to anything we say or care about anything we do...." Then she was stricken dumb by her own courage. Klee and Jonathan searched each other's eyes. The father switched on the telescreen, then switched it back off. He cleared his throat five or six times, scratched his elbow, worked the muscles of his jaw, then leaned forward in the chair. Lanya waited breathlessly. Would he be chastened or angry? "Supposing I buy you a new copter?" he said. "Will that straighten things out?" Lanya nodded eagerly. She glanced at Virgil who sat with a stiff face. "Make it an atom cruiser," he said with finality. Jonathan's face clouded for a moment. Lanya almost dropped through the floor. She saw her mother nod silently. "A cruiser it is!" their father cried. Then he burst into a loud peal of laughter, and switched on the telescreen. Lanya relaxed limply. Then she looked at Virgil. Very firmly and dignifiedly he folded his arms. But the eye turned away from his parents winked back at her, very solemnly.