space ship dragging our prisoners some ten minutes later.
Old Ironpants, the Admiral himself, resplendent in crimson and gold tunic, met us at the center of the deck. Marines flanked him on either side.
"Throw these men into the brig," were the Admiral's first words. He had a space-weathered hatchet-face which was now wrathful.
I couldn't help grinning at Shane, who grinned back at me, then pointed to the fat slob and the mustached snake whom we'd dropped on the deck.
"These men, Sir," Shane said, making a snappy salute, "are enemy spies. We captured them and an accomplice—a girl who's tied up in the ship—after a tremendous battle and a desperate chase."
This was roughly true. Anyway it sounded fine. I grinned at the Admiral, and imitated Shane's salute. I expected to see Old Ironpants' expression thaw. But I was disappointed.
"I am very well aware, Sergeant Shane," he said testily, "that these men are spies. Our Federation Secret Service has been tailing them for months. They could have apprehended them at any time, had they wanted to."
My stomach started to freeze again, and a stricken expression slipped over Shane's face.
"However," and now the Admiral's voice dripped sarcasm, "we realized they were but pawns working for far more important game than themselves. We wanted to reach their leaders, and so we let them steal some useless papers concerning our battle fleet. In order to frighten the girl—who carried the papers—into going to the main spy base on an undisclosed asteroid, we sent two of our best Secret Service Officers to pretend to harry her."
I gulped dismally. Shane merely stood there, jaw stupidly a-slack.
The Admiral went venomously on.
"We know of the hideout in the old mill, and of the fact that the girl and the two men had a space ship there. We stationed some of our fastest small space craft in the vicinity. Our purpose in this was to follow their ship the moment that they started to flee to their main base."
If there'd been a pin hole in the deck, I'd have slipped through it.
"This," Old Ironpants continued, "would have led us to the very door of the secret base they have on some asteroid. Which was primarily what we wanted."
I looked sheepishly at Shane, who looked sheepishly at the deck.
"However," the Admiral grated sarcastically, "in spite of the fact that you two almost succeeded in murdering our Secret Service Officers in an alley, our ruse was successful. The girl became frightened enough to decide to head back to the asteroid base with the two men."
There was acid in Old Ironpants' voice as he went on.
"Our ships immediately followed at a distance which would permit them to make the journey unobserved. And then, at precisely the most inopportune moment, you two blasted lunatics escape, bash up the spies, and turn the ship around in the opposite direction—completely and quite utterly ruining our one chance of learning the location of that base!"
Old Ironpants turned to the Marines.
"Throw these men in the brig," he demanded for the second time.
"But, Sir!" Shane suddenly snapped to excited action.
"Well?" Old Ironpants glared frostily at him.
"You have the directions to their secret base," Shane almost shouted in his feverish excitement. "Right on
