those orders are
confirmed."

Tom nodded to Frank, and the next jump key was pressed.

In the Saturn field, still another voice came through. "Orders from the
attorney general himself are to allow you to proceed. Say, Lynwood, what
is this all about?"

"Some sort of petty squabble over who gives orders to who," Lynwood
answered. "I just work here," he added tiredly.

"Well," said the voice. "So do I. Guess they'll fight it out in the
courts now. You understand, we had our orders."

"You understand, so did I." Tom answered.

"Sure," the voice answered, and cut out.

Cal wondered whether the orders to disintegrate had been a bluff. Would
the attorney general have dared disintegrate a ship with even a Junior E
on board? Maybe it had been just a threat of the local police, one they
didn't expect to have called.

Or maybe he had played directly into the attorney general's hands by
defying him, and getting that defiance on record was what the man had
wanted.

Whatever it was, the Eden matter had become bigger than merely finding
out what had happened to some colonists. Whatever it was, he'd better
find a successful solution, because the attorney general was counting on
him to fail. And if he did fail, certainly the position of the Junior E
would be altered, and possibly a deep thrust into the very heart of the
Senior E position, as well.

10

Louie was right. After they cleared the solar system there was no
trouble getting _to_ Eden. And there was no trouble circumnavigating the
globe while still in space.

Closer, but still outside the atmosphere in their surveying spiral, they
had no trouble in locating the island with Crystal Palace Mountain at
its center. There was only one such spot on Eden, and in their telescope
viewer its crystalline spires and minarets sparkled back at them like a
diamond set in jade.

The trouble began when they hovered over the location, when they
amplified their magnification to get a close look at the Appletree
village before dropping down to land.

Louie found the right valley. He said it was the right valley, and he
stuck to his claim stubbornly.

But there was no settlement there. No sign there had ever been.

Louie could see that for himself, they told him. There was nothing but
virgin land. The trees were undisturbed, and old. There were splashes of
rolling meadows spotted here and there by other trees, untilled meadows
sloping downward from the ridges to the ri