ew hours," Hall said. "It won't take long. Y-you can tell your
father tonight."

The boy suddenly remembered his raspberries when he saw his basket and
its spilled contents on the highway.

"Why don't you go along a bit," he said. "I would like to pick up those
berries I dropped."

"Remember," Hall said, "just a few hours." He turned and started
walking again toward Red Mountain. Inside his mind, the seventeen asked
anxiously, "Do you think he'll give the alarm? Will he report your
presence?"

[Illustration]

Back on the highway, the boy was gathering the berries back into his
basket while he tried to make his mind up.

* * * * *

Jordan reached Earth atmosphere about two o'clock in the afternoon. He
immediately reported in to the Terrestrial police force, and via the
teledepth screen spoke with a bored lieutenant. The lieutenant, after
listening to Jordan's account of his mission, assured him without any
particular enthusiasm of the willingness of the Terrestrial forces to
cooeperate, and of more value, gave him the location of all licensed
sources of radiation in the western hemisphere.

The galactic agent set eagerly to work, and in the next several hours
uncovered two unlisted radiation sources, both of which he promptly
investigated. In one case, north of Eugene, he found in the backyard of
a metal die company a small atomic pile. The owner was using it as an
illegal generator of electricity, and when he saw Jordan snooping about
with his detection instruments, he immediately offered the agent a
sizable bribe. It was a grave mistake since Jordan filed charges against
him, via teledepth, not only for evading taxes, but also for attempted
bribery.

The second strike seemed more hopeful. He picked up strong radiation in
a rather barren area of Montana; however when he landed, he found that
it was arising from the earth itself. From a short conversation with the
local authorities, he learned that the phenomenon was well known: an
atomic fission plant had been destroyed at that site during the Third
World War.

He was flying over the lovely blue water of Lake Bonneville, when his
teledepth screen flickered. He flipped the switch on and the
lieutenant's picture flooded in.

"I have a call I think you ought to take," the Earth official said. "It
seems as though it might be in your line. It's from a sheriff in a small
town in California. I'll have the operator plug him in."