"You mustn't think I'm one," she said rapidly. "My father was the last Andrew Fishdollar, the last man. He died two years ago." The younger Fishdollars, she continued, planned one last effort to settle a new planet, to be named Fishdollar Five. They recruited a group meeting Patrol standards and got sponsorship. It cost them a great deal of money. Their constitution and legal codes were those of the parent system, with minor changes correcting the unfair laws against high-Rho names. "And then--oh Stevie, those superstitious, ungrateful, low-Rho settlers! While we were still in subspace they began amending the laws and the constitution. They even changed our planet's name to Rewbobbin, the ugliest, lowest-Rho name among them!" "Rewbobbin!" He shuddered. "We were just frantic, Stevie. We wanted to scratch their eyes out and we wanted to die. Then we thought about seceding. We learned that _Rubberjack's_ tender was preloaded to care for an advance party of two hundred. We talked to General Cobb--you know the rest." "Yes, Wendy. How imaginative ... a random inspacing into unexplored vastness.... Wendy, I salute your courage!" "We weren't really so brave. The tender was a last resort, to force Captain Kravitz to settle us on another Carina planet. But when he reacted so violently--oh, Stevie, you should have _heard_ the language he used to me--we knew we must go. We really had no choice, now did we?" The ambassador coughed and licked his lips. "No, I suppose not, Wendy. Captain Kravitz is unimaginative ... aging...." "Stevie, did we do wrong? Do you think we did?" "No, Wendy. Not you, whoever else may have. You were magnificent. I will use all my influence to see that your settlement lives." "I'm so happy, Stevie. I feel safe now. Tomorrow Linda can work out a treaty with you. Shall we join the others?" The smooth white legs stood up. * * * * * The ambassador could not sleep. His own copy of Patrol Regulations was lost, but providentially he found a copy in the Fishdollar National Library beside his bed. He thumbed it. He was, indeed, still captain and therefore ambassador while his crew was intact. But that other article ... here it was: "In exceptional circumstances involving galactic security the commander of a ship or squadron may assume plenipotentiary status and execute finally rather than provisionally binding agreements ... as soon thereafter as practicable he shall report to Prime Reference for plenary court martial." So. If he dared.... He remembered old Borthwick's lectures in Patrol Jurisprudence at the academy. Only two men, both squadron commanders, had ever used that article. One had been shot, one cashiered.... The ambassador slept. * * * * * Over coffee next morning the foreign minister produced copies of the Patrol treaty with Sigma-3 Velorum, with appropriate name changes, and proposed they sign them. "These won't do, Madame Minister," he protested.