animals higher
than a large rodent, no sea mammals at all, no fish larger than the
tarpon. Nothing at all to hint at a line of primates.

A bacteriologist exclaimed at length over the similarity of minute life
forms to those on Earth, and used the occasion to again expound the old
theory of space-floating life spores to seed all favorable matter, and
thus develop similar forms through evolution, wherever found. Quickly
and tactfully Bill Hayes nudged him back on the track before the
expected storm of controversy could break out.

Then there was a short lunch time, but not a leisurely one. Quite aside
from the emergency of what might be happening to the colonists, there
was growing clamor from the people and pressure from various
governmental bodies to get off the dime and get going--rescue those
people, or, cynically, at least make a show of action to quell the flood
of telegrams. E.H.Q. resisted the pressures in favor of doing a
workmanlike job in preparation for a genuine rescue instead of a
haphazard show, but was mindful of them nevertheless.

7

Anyone who has witnessed even so much as a traffic-court trial cannot
help but realize that "government by law instead of man" is a mere
political phrase without meaning in reality. The ascendancy of
me-and-mine over you-and-yours runs so deep in the human psyche that
abstract idealisms must always take second place where such ascendancy
is threatened. Thus we see that the belly-crawler, meek and subservient
to the judge, comes off with a token sentence while the man who attempts
to maintain his pride, his rights, his self-respect gets the book thrown
at him.

No practical attorney is unaware that the judgment of his case depends
largely upon who presides, the whims, the prejudices, the moods, the
viewpoint of the judge; and that the law merely provides justification
for the imposition of those whims, moods, prejudices, and viewpoints.

And ambitions.

The announcement at E.H.Q. that a Junior E would be given this problem
gave Gunderson's man the opening he had hoped to find. A hurried call to
the capitol and a brief conversation with Gunderson himself confirmed
his conclusions. Perhaps the E was above all law, and it might not be
expedient to challenge that right now, but immunity did not necessarily
extend to the Junior E.

In view of the known ambitions of certain judges, it should not be
difficult to make a test case of this--whether the E's had a rig