"And I see that the boys here have got that gun pointed in your direction again. The Space Patrol wouldn't be too happy if you brought the Faultless back with a few big holes in her sides, would they. And I don't know if I can stop the boys—"
The Commodore turned green, then purple, then a trifle black in the face. "I can't do it. It—it isn't legal. I—I haven't got the authority."
Grandma silenced him with a wave of her hand. "Of course you have. In the case of the Space Patrol vs. Pickens and Poof, the Solar Supreme Court ruled that Patrol Commodores, while in space, have the power to grant complete amnesty to any deserving citizens who merit it. I didn't put my eldest son Wade through law school without learning something about the subject. Furthermore, in the case of Higgins vs. Abercrombie—"
"All right. I give up. You win." The Commodore retired from the video screen, tears in his eyes.
A few hours later the Dirty Shame hove into sight of the Kismet. Grandma Perkins put on her space suit again and prepared to head back to the luxury liner, but not before she and her boys had had a small celebration, the high spot of which was another batch of fresh-baked biscuits.
Grandma then told them all good-bye and insisted on kissing each of them on their cheeks in spite of the beards. She then explained that she hated to go off and leave them like this, but that she had a contract to live up to and that she always kept her bargains. But anyway they had their pardons now and they probably wouldn't need her—much.
And it must be reported that as the tiny little figure, safe in the over-sized space suit, drifted across the void that separated the two ships, more than one of the grizzled crew turned aside to wipe his eyes on a dirty sleeve.
IV
It is doubtful that anyone ever enjoyed a trip on the Kismet as much as Grandma Perkins did hers. Johnny waited on her hand and foot, she was served first at the table and she kept up a running flow of brilliant conversation. And if Captain Fogarty seemed to enjoy his meals less the latter part of the voyage than he had the first part, only the more malicious of the passengers dared to connect his loss of appetite with his new-found guest of honor.