Shoemaker thought, this is it. He spat on his fist for luck and hit Burford a beauty on the chin. Burford fell down, and, astonishingly, got up again. A little disheartened, Shoemaker took two blows in the face from Hale before he knocked the little man into a far corner. _Hale_ got up again. Shoemaker, who had been aware for some time that someone was pummeling his back, turned around unhappily and knocked Davies down. Davies, at any rate, stayed down. Burford, whose face was puffy, and Hale, who was bleeding from assorted cuts, came toward him. Hale, he saw, had the dagger in his hand. Shoemaker stepped back, picked up the unconscious Davies by collar and belt, and slung him across the deck. This time both men went down (Hale with a soggy _bloomp_), and stayed there. The dagger skidded out of Hale's hand and came to rest at Shoemaker's feet. He picked it up, knelt at a convenient distance to cut off Hale's and Burford's noses, and threatened to do just that. Burford intimated that he would do as he was told. Hale said nothing, but the expression on his face was enough. Satisfied, Shoemaker opened a locker with Burford's keys, got a coil of insulated wire and tied up Davies and Hale, after which, with Burford's help, he strapped them into their acceleration hammocks. Burford was acting a little vague. Shoemaker slapped him around until he looked alive, then set him to punching calculator keys. After a few minutes of this, Burford looked as if he wanted to say something. "Well, spit it out," said Shoemaker, waving the golden knife. "You'll get yours," said Burford, looking scared but stubborn. "When we get back to New York--" "South Africa," corrected Shoemaker, "where the Supreme Council can't ask us any questions." Burford looked surprised, then said it was a good idea. It was, too. * * * * * The lone star winked out in the blue-green heavens, and the winds of its passing died away. The throng of little rabbit-eared green men, floating on their placid ocean, gazed after it long after it had disappeared. "What do _you_ think?" said the slim one without whiskers. "Did they like us?" The one addressed was yards away, but his long ears heard the question plainly. "Can't say," he answered. "They acted so _funny_. When we spoke to that one in their own language, so as to make him feel at home--" "Yes," said a third, almost invisible in the mist. "Was that the right thing to do, d'you suppose? Are you _sure_ you got the words right, that last time?" "Sure," said the first, confidently. "I was right next to the ship all evening, and I memorized everything they said...." They considered that for a while, sipping from their flasks. Other voices piped up: "Maybe we should have talked to them when they were all together?" "Nooo. They were so _big_. That one was much the nicest, anyway." "He took our present."