There were tiny, brightly-banded beetles hardly a foot long which labored industriously over such frayed objects. They worked agitatedly in the yeasty stuff which on this world took the place of soil. They excavated, beneath the bodies of the dead ants, hollows into which those carcasses could descend. They pushed the yeasty, curdy stuff up and around the sides of those to-be-desired objects. The dead warriors sank little by little toward oblivion as the process went on. The up-thrust, dug-out material collapsed upon them as they descended. In a very little while they would be buried where no larger carrion-eater would discover them, and then the brightly-colored sexton beetles would begin a banquet to last until only fragments of chitinous armor remained. * * * * * But Moran and Burleigh, in the _Nadine's_ control-room, could hardly note such details. "You saw the cargo," said Burleigh, frowning. "How's it packed? The bessendium, I mean." "It's in small boxes too heavy to be handled easily," said Moran. "Anyhow the _Malabar's_ crew broke some of them open to load the stuff on their lifeboats." "The lifeboats are all gone?" "Naturally," said Moran. "At a guess they'd have used all of them even if they didn't need them for the crew. They could carry extra food and weapons and such." "How much bessendium is left?" "Probably twenty boxes unopened," said Moran. "I can't guess at the weight, but it's a lot. They opened six boxes." He paused. "I have a suggestion." "What?" "When you've supplied yourselves," said Moran, "leave some space-port somewhere with papers saying you're going to hunt for minerals on some plausible planet. You can get such a clearance. Then you can return with bessendium coming out of the _Nadine's_ waste-pipes and people will be surprised but not suspicious. You'll file for mineral rights, and cash your cargo. Everybody will get busy trying to grab off the mineral rights for themselves. You can clear out and let them try to find the bessendium lode. You'll be allowed to go, all right, and you can settle down somewhere rich and highly respected." "Hmmm," said Burleigh. Then he said uncomfortably; "One wonders about the original owners of the stuff." "After a hundred and fifty years," said Moran, "who'd you divide with? The insurance company that paid for the lost ship? The heirs of the crew? How'd you find them?" Then he added amusedly, "Only revolutionists and enemies of governments would be honest enough to worry about that!" Brawn came into the control-room. He said broodingly that breakfast was ready. Moran had never heard him speak in a normally cheerful voice. When he went out, Moran said; "I don't suppose he'll be so gloomy when he's rich!" "His family was wiped out," said Burleigh curtly, "by the government we were fighting. The girl he was going to marry, too." "Then I take back what I said," said Moran ruefully. * * * * *