"Hello, Nat. How is the Chief of the Venusian Desk?"

"Well, if you want to know the truth, Chief, I'm pretty god damned
relieved. Some jobs are fun. But my hair has been standing on end so
much since you gave me this job that it's going to need about a
year's rest. No man wants his hair to have a nervous breakdown."

The Chief looked at me fondly. "Well, I can't say you carried your
mission out quietly. It practically blew me out of bed, and I live at
least ten miles away."

"Joe did a hell of a good job with the TNT," I said. "How the hell he
ever got twenty tons of it down in the basement in three hours I'll
never find out."

A slight frown came over the Chief's face. "Are you sure our Venusian
friend was there?"

"Absolutely."

"How--absolutely?"

"I called him on the telephone. When he answered I pressed the button.
I heard the explosion over the wire, half a second before it
practically tore down my own house. When I got over there a big crowd
was collecting." I took a deep breath. "Not much for them to look at,
though--just a big black smoking hole in the ground."

"And our inter-planetary friend?"

"Well, I don't know about his soul, Chief, but his body isn't around
anywhere. I guess it just turned into steam with the rest of the
house. A lot of women are going to be sad as hell."

I saw the Chief's fists clenched on the desk. He was still taut from
the strain of the last few hours. Finally he reached for the silver
cigarette box on his desk. His fingers jerked crazily as he put a
cigarette in his mouth. He passed the box to me. I took one and
started fumbling in my pockets for a match. The Chief snapped open the
top of his big desk lighter, and held it over to me. I put the
cigarette into the flame and drew deeply. The flame was at least three
inches high. The Chief leaned forward, his eyes riveted on me. There
was a queer, expectant look on his face. I stared back at him,
puzzled. Finally he snapped the lighter shut, and turned to the wall.
"It's all right, boys," he said.

* * * * *

A door with grille-work along the front opened up. I saw Joe Evans and
Tom Hardy and Jim Reid standing there with tommy guns, pointed right
at my head.

The Chief laughed at my expression of bewilderment.

"I wasn't taking any chances, Nat. You can't afford to in a situation
like this. No matter how sure you are, you can't gamble the whole
future of your own world. I wanted to be