"I'll give you fifty men," he said. "I think you'll be killed, of course. But if you live long enough to convince them that the fleet's been destroyed, you'll be of service." "What," Bors asked, with a trace of humor, "can possibly be done about the fact that we wiped out a Mekinese fleet instead of letting it exterminate us?" "The matter," the admiral answered seriously, "is under consideration." Bors shrugged and went to his own ship, the _Isis_. He was excessively uncomfortable. He'd said to his uncle, and implied to the king, that he had some plan in mind. He did, but it angered him to know that he counted on assistance; that, in theory, he could not possibly accomplish it alone. It was irritating to realize that he expected Gwenlyn and her father to turn up, with their Talents, when absolutely nobody outside of the fleet could possibly imagine where the fleet had gone. On Kandar it must be assumed, by now, that it was dead. His ship's boat clanked into position in the lifeboat blister. The valves closed on it. A moment later there was a whistling murmur, and the boat's vision-ports clouded over outside and then cleared. He stepped out into the ship's atmosphere. His second-in-command greeted him in the control-room. "I was trying to reach you at the flagship, sir," he said. "The yacht _Sylva_ is lying a few miles off. Her owner has forwarded news reports to the flagship. He asks that you receive him when you can, sir." Bors's apparent lack of surprise was real. He wasn't surprised. But he was annoyed with himself for expecting something so impossible as the _Sylva_ tracing the fleet through an overdrive voyage of days to a most unlikely destination like Glamis. "Tell him to come aboard," he commanded. He went to talk to the mess officer, reflecting that he would ask the Morgans how the _Sylva_ had known where to come, and they'd tell him, and it would be extremely unlikely, and he would accept the explanation. The mess-officer looked harassed at the news of fifty additional crewmen to be fed. "Principles of prudence and common sense," said Bors, "don't apply any more. We'll feed them somehow." He went back to the control-room. When Morgan appeared, beaming expansively, Bors was again unsurprised to see Gwenlyn with him. Logan, the Mathematics Talent, followed in their wake, looking indifferently about him. "We wiped out the fleet headed for Kandar," Bors observed. "I don't suppose that's news, to you?" Morgan cheerfully shook his head. "And we're in considerably more trouble than before. Is that news?" "No," admitted Morgan. "It's reasonable for you to be." "Then, damnit, I'm going off on a pirating-news-gathering-food-raiding cruise alone," said Bors. "Is that news?" "We brought Logan," said Morgan, "to go with you. He'll be useful. That's Talents--"