ut in
space and another on the ground, they shouldn't have any trouble in
working it out. He wondered if he should suggest that to E McGinnis as
soon as the operator located him. Even if the grand, lovable old man
thought of it for himself, he'd compliment Hayes for thinking it,
reasoning it all out!

The intercom operator came on his line.

"Sir," she said, and cleared her throat. He could hear her gulp. Her
voice was very small, thin. "Sir," she began again. "I contacted E
McGinnis. He said some things. He told me to tell you exactly what he
said, word for word. I took it down in shorthand, so I could."

"Well! Well!" he exclaimed impatiently. His brusqueness seemed to give
her courage.

"Sir," she said a little stronger. "E McGinnis won't talk to you. He
says the foggy, rambling way that review was conducted was a disgrace.
He says why don't you get on with what you have to do instead of
bothering people. He says not to waste any more of his time unless you
can come up with something he doesn't already know. He says he doubts
you'd know what that was even if it hit you in the face. He said to tell
you the exact words, so I took it down in shorthand, so I could.
Because--he said to."

She was all but wailing, as she finished.

"All right," Hayes sighed tiredly. Senile old devil! No wonder things
were going to pot, if this was a sample of E training. "Send me your
notes so I can follow them carefully," he told the operator.

"So you can tear them up before they get spread all over the joint," she
mumbled, but she had already thrown the key so he couldn't hear her.

Resignedly, because he knew he was going to catch it from the scientists
just as bad, because he was feeling very sorry for himself that he must
always be in the middle of things, he began to arouse the scientists.

He felt so sorry for himself that he dropped his tentative plan to have
the midgit-idgit check the personal attributes of the individual
colonists out there--to see if some of them might be young, pretty,
female--34-24-34.

As if the idea were now red hot, he dropped the plan of telling General
Administration that, since Eden was in his sector, perhaps he should go
out there, personally.

15

The observer ship, with an assistant attorney general aboard was,
indeed, reporting directly to the attorney general's office--to
Gunderson in person. On their own secret channel, of course. Had to be
secret. All right for them to kno