"Sure. If I'd thought of it." "Anyone who can handle a spaceship like you can--" "In," acknowledged Lark O'Day, "my own back yard; our own little solar system. But when it comes to figuring intergalactic calculus with a quadridimensional drive as a factor--" He shook his head admiringly--"you're the boy for my money." * * * * * Muldoon's fingers were itching on the butt of the Haemholtz. He glanced at the silent Borisu, then longingly at his weapon. "When the Mutual Admiration Society adjourns," he said, "what are we going to do with our lethal little pal? You want I should take him out somewhere and play punchboard on him with this?" Gary Lane said grimly, "Murder in cold blood isn't ordinarily my dish, but it seems to me that in _this_ case it isn't so much a case of murder as it is fitting retribution. I'm in favor of--" But Dr. Bryant said, "No, Gary. We can't do that." "Why not? He's got it coming to him." "I agree with you perfectly. But now that we have reached Sirius we may have need of him." "Need of _him_?" exploded Muldoon. "Yes. For one thing we already know the Magogean language is unlike any used in our universe. We will have need of an interpreter. Another thing you must remember is that so long as we hold him unharmed aboard the _Liberty_ we hold as hostage one whom we know to be a person of importance among his own people." Lark O'Day said bluntly, "I'm agin it. I was raised in a hard school, I know. But one thing I learned long ago was that the best way to get rid of an enemy is--get rid of him!" And Dr. Kang, too, added quietly, "It is not wise to spare an enemy like this; one who has already attempted not once but many times to destroy us. It is written, 'Who dallies with the wasp will feel its sting.'" Neither Muldoon nor Gary appeared to think highly of Dr. Bryant's clemency. But surprisingly it was the skipper who came to Dr. Bryant's support. Warren said soberly, "What you say about Anjers'--Borisu's--treachery is quite true. Nevertheless, _we_ have no right to pass judgment upon him. The thing to do is hold him in protective custody, take him back to Earth with us when we go, and there let him stand judgment before a properly constituted court. Law and order must be upheld." O'Day laughed curtly. "There speaks the Space Patrolman. Once a cop, always a cop, eh, Warren?" Warren flushed. "Maybe so. But that's the way I feel about it." And the one-time pirate shrugged. "Okay, skipper. It's your ship. Save him it is. But--" He glared distastefully at the Magogean--"it's a good thing for you, buster, that we're aboard the _Liberty_ and not the _Black Star_...." * * * * * So Borisu was taken away and placed under lock and key in the _Liberty's_ brig. And later the leaders of the expedition gathered once more in the control turret of the _Liberty_ as Hugh Warren, with his instruments, struggled to set a true and proper course for the ship.