He was satisfied, so much so that immediately afterward he yawned and yawned and barely managed to stagger off to bed.  The watching guard in the Med Ship watched him in amazement.

That night the ship from Orede came in, packed with frozen bloody carcasses of cattle.  Calhoun knew nothing of it.  But next morning Maril came back.  There were shadows under her eyes and her expression was of someone who has lost everything that had meaning in her life.

“I’m all right,” she insisted, when Calhoun commented.  “I’ve been visiting my family.  I’ve seen Korvan.  I’m quite all right.”

“You haven’t eaten any better than I have,” Calhoun observed.

“I couldn’t!” admitted Maril.  “My sisters, my little sisters so thin....  There’s rationing for everybody and it’s all efficiently arranged.  They even had rations for me.  But I couldn’t eat!  I gave most of my food to my sisters and they—­they squabbled over it!”

Calhoun said nothing.  There was nothing to say.  Then she said, in a no less desolate tone, “Korvan said I was foolish to come back.”

“He could be right,” said Calhoun.

“But I had to!” protested Maril.  “And now I—­I’ve been eating all I wanted to, in Weald and in the ship, and I’m ashamed because they’re half-starved and I’m not.  And when you see what hunger does to them....  It’s terrible to be half-starved and not able to think of anything but food!”

“I hope,” said Calhoun, “to do something about that.  If I can get hold of an astrogator or two—­”

“The ship that was on Orede came in during the night,” Maril told him shakily.  “It was loaded with frozen meat, but one load’s not enough to make a difference on a whole planet!  And if Weald hunts for us on Orede, we daren’t go back for more meat.”

She said abruptly, “There are some prisoners.  They were miners.  They were crowded out of the ship.  The Darians who’d stampeded the cattle took them prisoners.  They had to!”

“True,” said Calhoun.  “It wouldn’t have been wise to leave Wealdians around on Orede with their throats cut.  Or living, either, to tell about a rumor of blueskins.  Even if their throats will be cut now.  Is that the program?”

Maril shivered.

“No.  They’ll be put on short rations like everybody else.  And people will watch them.  The Wealdians expect to die of plague any minute because they’ve been with Darians.  So people look at them and laugh.  But it’s not very funny.”

“It’s natural,” said Calhoun, “but perhaps lacking in charity.  Look there!  How about those astrogators?  I need them for a job I have in mind.”

Maril wrung her hands.

“C—­come here,” she said in a low tone.

There was an armed guard in the control room of the ship.  He’d watched Calhoun a good part of the previous day as Calhoun performed his mysterious work.  He’d been off-duty and now was on duty again.  He was bored.  So long as Calhoun did not touch the control board, though, he was uninterested.  He didn’t even turn his head when Maril led the way into the other cabin and slid the door shut.