"Well?" he said sharply.
Thal swallowed.
"We have been companions, Bron Hoddan," he said unhappily. "We fought together in great battles, two against fifty, and we plundered the slain."
"True enough," agreed Hoddan. If Thal wanted to edit his memories of the fighting at the spaceport, that was all right with him. "Now we're headed for something much better."
"But what?" asked Thal miserably. "Here we are high above our native world—"
"Oh, no!" said Hoddan. "You couldn't even pick out its sun, from where we are now!"
Thal gulped.
"I ... do not understand what you want with us," he protested. "We are not experienced in space! We are simple men—"
"You're pirates now," Hoddan told him with a sort of genial bloodthirstiness. "You'll do what I tell you until we fight. Then you'll fight well or die. That's all you need to know!"
He left them. When men are to be led it is rarely wise to discuss policy or tactics with them. Most men work best when they know only what is expected of them. Then they can't get confused and they do not get ideas of how to do things better.