We shifted so that no matter which way Morrie sailed the card it would be "down." Axel dressed and then went into the control room. A few minutes later Dr. Joel came in. He saw us playing gin rummy. "Good Lord! Interplanetary Las Vegas?" "Want to join us, Warner?" I asked. "Not for all the gold dust on the moon," he said. "If Spartan ever sees you playing cards, he'll hang you to an asteroid." He watched us play, glancing apprehensively toward the forward bulkhead as if he expected Spartan to burst in on us at any moment. Then, at last, he got up and went through the door. I was facing the bulkhead but I didn't notice him leaving because I was trying to decide whether to gin or not. It was Morrie who heard the door open, whirling his head so suddenly it almost displaced him from his sitting position. "Hey!" he exclaimed, "Joel's gone. Do you suppose he intends to rat on us?" "Let him," I said. "These cards are worth the powder it took to shoot 'em into space. They probably will preserve our sanity. That's why Spartan can't object." Morrie looked at me as if he didn't know what to believe. I shrugged off his doubt, certain that Spartan was intelligent enough to see the cards weren't hurting anything, even though they'd been brought aboard illegally. I ginned and won. Morrie was reshuffling the cards to deal again when the door opened and Dr. Spartan, followed by Warner Joel, came into the cabin. "Stop this immediately!" Spartan barked. We turned our heads and looked at Spartan's angry face. Then I noticed that he was wearing something new--a holster, holding a nickel-plated air pistol. A kid's toy. "Stand up!" Spartan said, his hand on the pistol butt. For a moment I wondered if Gail had been right, that Spartan was capable of going in for a little capital punishment to pass the boring hours in space. Morrie and I got to our feet. "Those things--" Spartan nodded his head toward the cards. "--are strictly against regulations. If you have time on your hands, you should use the projector and study the scientific works aboard. We can't allow foolishness." "Damnit, Doctor," I said, "all work and no play is going to turn this crew into a dull bunch of astronauts." "Nonsense," said Spartan. "I forbid card playing. We're not on the earth any more. We're in space. Beyond terrestrial law. Beyond any standards and regulations that exist on our planet. We are, in effect, another world--and I rule this world. What I say is law and must be obeyed." Morrie stared at him, open-mouthed. But I had been warned about what to expect from Spartan. After all, he'd said about the same thing to Gail. "We're not questioning your authority, sir," I said. "And what we were doing was very innocent." "I'm the best judge of that. Give me the cards, Grover." Morrie hesitated, his face registering uncertainty.