That was how the news about McIlvaine's Star was received by his cronies. Afterward, after McIlvaine had dutifully played several games of euchre, Richardson conceived the idea of telephoning the _Globe_ to announce McIlvaine's discovery. * * * * * "The old fellow took himself seriously," Harrigan went on. "And yet he was so damned mousy about it. I mean, you got the impression that he had been trying for so long that now he hardly believed in his star himself any longer. But there it was. He had a long, detailed story of its discovery, which was an accident, as those things usually are. They happen all the time, and his story sounded convincing enough. Just the same, you didn't feel that he really had anything. I took down notes, of course; that was routine. I got a picture of the old man, with never an idea we'd be using it. "To tell the truth, I carried my notes around with me for a day or so before it occurred to me that it wouldn't do any harm to put a call in to Yerkes Observatory up in Wisconsin. So I did, and they confirmed McIlvaine's Star. The _Globe_ had the story, did it up in fine style. "It was two weeks before we heard from McIlvaine again...." * * * * * That night McIlvaine was more than usually diffident. He was not like a man bearing a message of considerable importance to himself. He slipped into Bixby's, got a glass of beer, and approached the table where his friends sat, almost with trepidation. "It's a nice evening for May," he said quietly. Richardson grunted. Leopold said, "By the way, Mac, whatever became of that star of yours? The one the papers wrote up." "I think," said McIlvaine cautiously, "I'm quite sure--I have got in touch with them. Only," his brow wrinkled and furrowed, "I can't understand their language." "Ah," said Richardson with an edge to his voice, "the thing for you to do is to tell them that's your star, and they'll have to speak English from now on, so you can understand them. Why, next thing we know, you'll be getting yourself a rocket or a space-ship and going over to that star to set yourself up as king or something." "King Thaddeus the First," said Alexander loftily. "All you star-dwellers may kiss the royal foot." "That would be unsanitary, I think," said McIlvaine, frowning. Poor McIlvaine! They made him the butt of their jests for over an hour before he took himself off to his quarters, where he sat himself down before his telescope and found his star once more, almost huge enough to blot out Arcturus, but not quite, since it was moving away from that amber star now. McIlvaine's star was certainly much closer to the Earth than it had been.