office three or four girls
jumped to their feet; one of them jumped into the bulk of Marshal Fane,
which had interposed itself between her and the communication screen. They
were all shooed out into the hall, and one of the deputies was dropped
there with the prisoner. The middle office was empty. Fane took his
badgeholder in his left hand as he pushed through the door to the inner
office.

Kellogg's--temporarily Mallin's--secretary seemed to have preceded them by
a few seconds; she was standing in front of the desk sputtering
incoherently. Mallin, starting to rise from his chair, froze, hunched
forward over the desk. Juan Jimenez, standing in the middle of the room,
seemed to have seen them first; he was looking about wildly as though for
some way of escape.

Fane pushed past the secretary and went up to the desk, showing Mallin his
badge and then serving the papers. Mallin looked at him in bewilderment.

"But we're keeping those Fuzzies for Mr. O'Brien, the Chief Prosecutor,"
he said. "We can't turn them over without his authorization."

"This," Max Fane said gently, "is an order of the court, issued by Chief
Justice Pendarvis. As for Mr. O'Brien, I doubt if he's Chief Prosecutor
any more. In fact, I suspect that he's in jail. _And that_," he shouted,
leaning forward as far as his waistline would permit and banging on the
desk with his fist, "_is where I'm going to stuff you, if you don't get
those Fuzzies in here and turn them over immediately!_"

If Fane had suddenly metamorphosed himself into a damnthing, it couldn't
have shaken Mallin more. Involuntarily he cringed from the marshal, and
that finished him.

"But I can't," he protested. "We don't know exactly where they are at the
moment."

"You don't know." Fane's voice sank almost to a whisper. "You admit you're
holding them here, but you ... don't ... know ... where. _Now start over
again; tell the truth this time!_"

At that moment, the communication screen began making a fuss. Ruth
Ortheris, in a light blue tailored costume, appeared in it.

"Dr. Mallin, what _is_ going on here?" she wanted to know. "I just came in
from lunch, and a gang of men are tearing my office up. Haven't you found
the Fuzzies yet?"

"What's that?" Jack yelled. At the same time, Mallin was almost screaming:
"Ruth! Shut up! Blank out and get out of the building!"

With surprising speed for a man of his girth, Fane whirled and was in
front of the screen, holding his badge out.