madder by the minute.

"Anyone that disagreed with them was called an Earthling."

"And you disagreed?" asked Connel.

"I quit," said Sinclair stoutly. "And right after that, I started losing
livestock. I found them dead in the pens, poisoned. And some of my crops
were burned."

"Did you protest to the Solar Guard?"

"Of course, but there wasn't any proof any one of my neighbors had done
it. They don't bother me any more, but they don't speak to me either.
It's as though I had a horrible disease. There hasn't been a guest in
this house in nearly two years. Three space cadets are the first
visitors here since I quit the organization."

"Space Cadets?" Connel looked at the planter quizzically.

"Yes, nice young chaps. Corbett, Manning, and a big fellow named Astro.
They're out in the jungle now hunting for tyrannosaurus. I met them
through a friend in Venusport and invited them to use my house as a base
of operations. Do you know them?"

Connel nodded. "Very well. Finest cadet unit at the Academy. How long
have they been in the jungle?"

"About four and a half days now."

"Hope they get themselves a tyranno. But at the same time"--Connel
couldn't help chuckling--"if they do, Space Academy will never hear the
end of it!"

Suddenly the hot wilting silence around the house was shattered by a
thunderous roar. Connel jumped up, followed Sinclair to the window, and
stared out over the clearing. They saw what appeared to be a
well-organized squadron of jet boats come in for a landing with near
military precision. The doors opened quickly and men poured out onto the
dusty field. They were dressed alike in coveralls with short
quarter-length space boots and round plastic crash helmets. Each man
carried a paralo-ray gun strapped to his hips. The uniforms were a
brilliant green, with a white band across the chest. The men formed
ranks, waited for a command from a man dressed in darker green, and then
marched up toward the house.

"By the craters of Luna!" roared Connel. "Who are they?"

"The Nationalists!" cried Sinclair. "They threatened to burn down my
house and destroy my farm if I wrote that letter to the delegate.
They've come to carry out their threat!"

Connel pulled the paralo-ray gun from his hip and gripped it firmly. "Do
you want those men in your house?" he asked Sinclair.

"No--no, of course not!"

"Then you have Solar Guard protection."

"How--?" Sinclair asked. "There are no Solar Guardsmen aroun