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A rebuke rose to my lips, but I checked it. After all, Correy had no more than put into words some fears which had been harassing me.

* * * * *

A traitor–in the Service? Perhaps you won’t be able to understand just what that thought meant to those of us who wore the Blue and Silver in those days. But a traitor was something we had never had. It was almost unbelievable that such a thing would ever happen; that it could ever happen. And yet older men than Hendricks had thrown honor aside at the insistence of women less fascinating than Liane.

I had felt the lure of her personality; there was not one of us on board the Ertak who had not. And she had not exercised her wiles on any of us save Hendricks; with the shrewdness which had made her the leader she was, she had elected to fascinate the youngest, the weakest, the most impressionable.

“I’ll have a talk with him, Mr. Correy,” I said quietly. “Probably it isn’t necessary; I trust him implicitly, as I am sure you do, and the rest of us.”

“Certainly, sir,” Correy replied hastily, evidently relieved by the manner in which I had taken his remarks. “Only, he’s very young, sir, and Liane is a very fascinating creature.”

I kept my promise to Correy the next time Hendricks was on watch.

“We’ll be setting down in a couple of days,” I commented casually. “It’ll be good to stretch our legs again, won’t it?”

“It certainly will, sir.”

“And I imagine that’s the last we’ll see of our fair stowaway,” I said, watching him closely.

Hendricks’ face flushed and then drained white. With the tip of his forefinger he traced meaningless geometrical patterns on the surface of the instrument table.

“I imagine so, sir,” he replied in a choked voice. And then, suddenly, in a voice which shook with released emotion. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking!” he added. “What you’ve all been thinking; you, sir, and Correy and Kincaide. Probably the men, too, for that matter.

“But it’s not so! I want you to believe that, sir. I may be impressionable, and certainly she is beautiful and–and terribly fascinating; but I’m not quite a fool. I realize she’s on the other side; that I can’t, that I must not, permit myself to care. You–you do believe that, sir?”

“Of course, lad!” I put my hand reassuringly on his shoulder; his whole body was shaking. “Forget it; forget her as soon as you can. None of us have doubted you for an instant; we just–wondered.”

“I could see that; I could feel it. And it hurt,” said my junior officer with shame-faced hesitancy. “But I’ll forget her–after she’s gone.”

I let it go at that. After all, it was a rather painful subject for us both. The next day it did seem that he treated her with less attention; and she noticed it, for I saw the faint shadow of a frown form between her perfect brows, and her glance traveled meditatively from Hendricks’ flushed face to my own.

* * * * *

The next morning, after the first meal of the day, she walked down the passage with me, one slim white hand placed gently within the curve of my arm.

“Mr. Hendricks,” she commented softly, “seems rather distraught the last day or so.”

“Yes?” I said, smiling to myself, and wondering what was coming next.

“Yes, Commander Hanson.” There was just the faintest suggestion of steeliness in her voice now. “I fancy you’ve been giving him good advice, and painting me in lurid colors. Do you really think so badly of me?” Her hand pressed my arm with warm friendliness; her great blue eyes were watching me with beseeching interest.