"Yes, Governor," nodded Lancelot Biggs sorrowfully, "I'm afraid that's true. Your colony wouldn't want our seeds. For one thing, they're all roses. The Cosmic Corporation offers you all kinds of flowers. For another thing, our seeds are not particularly hardy. Furthermore, I'm afraid a number of them were spoiled in transit when the leaden containers were broken, allowing cosmic rays to seep in--" "_Biggs!_" howled Cap Hanson. "Shut up this minute an' get out of here! What do you mean by tellin' lies like that? A number of our containers? It was only _one_ container, and--" The Governor interrupted him with a smooth lift of the hand. "Never mind, Captain Hanson. We understand. Er ... thank you, Mr. Biggs, for your frank statement. Gentlemen of the Council, you have reached a decision? Yes, I thought so. "Captain Murgatroyd, it gives me great pleasure to award you, on behalf of the Iapetus Governing Board, full priority rights to the flower-seed concession on our new colony, as set forth in Rule 14, Paragraph--" "_Ruined!_" wailed Cap Hanson. "Sabotaged by a wolf in cheap clothing! Diane, why did you ever marry that falsifying, good for nothin'--" He broke down. We led him, babbling incoherently, back to the ship. * * * * * But there, Diane, who had held up nobly throughout the proceedings, turned to her husband curiously. "Lanse, dear, you know I've always backed you up in everything you've done, but--but why did you do this? Don't you know the loss of this monopoly will cost the Company millions, and may cost Daddy his job?" Lanse nodded. "Yes, I know that would be true, dear ... if there were not other factors involved." Cap Hanson lifted his head drearily. "Other factors?" "Yes, Skipper. Something amazing has happened. Something so incredible that even yet I can scarcely credit it. It all turns about something Sparks said--" "Who, me?" I gulped. "Now, don't drag _me_ into this." "You remember that ... er ... love song you suggested to me?" queried Biggs. I nodded glumly. "Sure. '_Roses are red, violets are blue, the rest went whacky_--'" "But this one--" finished Lancelot Biggs triumphantly--"is _blue_!" And dramatically he drew from its waxine envelope the rosebud he had refused to show the Iapetus Governor, tossed it on the table before us. We all stared at it in gasping bewilderment. For he was right. That tiny rosebud was a brilliant, penetrating, heavenly, _cobalt blue_! Cap Hanson choked, "But--but a blue rose! I never seen such a thing before!" "Neither," crowed Biggs, "has anyone else. But flower-lovers have dreamed of them for centuries.[5] Hundreds of thousands of dollars--perhaps millions--have been spent by botanists in an effort to create that rare, often wished for but never accomplished example of beauty, the blue rose. A fortune awaits the first man to put such a thing on the market. And by luck we have done it!"