n it. But he kept
his head. E science must be farther along than he'd realized, to
produce a miracle such as this--but it was science. He must hold to
that, otherwise ...

He saw his case begin to melt out from under him, and he made one more
effort to regain some measure of control. He gave his own pilot orders
to land on the surface of Eden. He transmitted orders to the other two
police ships to follow in close formation; the three of them to land and
take custody.

But the barrier still remained, and the ships could not penetrate it.

He told himself that all wasn't lost. Maybe the E was back in control of
Eden, but he, Gunderson, still had a morals case. All those photographs!
Some of the press and commentators might desert him, now that the Junior
had proved adequate to the job. Unless he chose carefully, some stupid
judge might decide the means were justified by the end result. But there
were those photographs, and the world was full of Mrs. Grundy. He might
have to back up a little bit on the incompetence of the Junior E, but
Mrs. Grundy would be behind him a hundred per cent on the morals
issue--when he released some of the photographs, and titillated her
nasty imagination by reference to others too indecent to release.

It was then that the observer ship got a call through to him, and told
him that the photographs, every one of them, had disappeared from the
ship's vault where they had been locked, and the only thing remaining in
the vault was one little slip of paper which read, "Shame on you for
taking feelthy pictures. Naughty, naughty! Calvin Gray."

The case was crumbling, but all was not lost. He still had witnesses. He
thought for a minute and began to wonder about those witnesses. Any
judge, anybody around the courts, anybody connected with the press, and
maybe even some of the public knew that any police officer will swear to
any lie to back up another police officer because he might need the
favor returned tomorrow.

Without concrete evidence ...

He suddenly found himself standing in the cabin of the E ship,
confronted by E McGinnis, Junior E Gray, and Mrs. Gray. He sank down in
a chair and sat frozen, immobile. Only his eyes were alive, darting
frantically here and there as if expecting some hole to open up and
swallow him--perhaps wishing one would.

"I don't know just what to do with you," Cal said a little sadly,
ruefully. "Far as the E's are concerned, you've only been a minor
nuisance