ers, but there was no doubt there, either.
The craft had been far away at the time of the assassination on New Delos.

On the third day, Ronny Bronston, disgusted, knocked on the door of Tog's
hotel room. The door screen lit up and Tog, looking out at him said, "Oh,
come on in, Ronny, I was just talking to Earth."

He entered.

Tog had set up her Section G communicator on a desk top and Sid Jakes'
grinning face was in the tiny, brilliant screen. Ronny approached close
enough for the other to take him in.

Jakes said happily, "Hi, Ronny, no luck, eh?"

Ronny shook his head, trying not to let his face portray his feelings of
defeat. This after all was a probationary assignment, and the supervisor
had the power to send Ronny Bronston back to the drudgery of his office
job at Population Statistics.

"Still working on it. I suppose it's a matter of returning to New Delos
and grinding away at the forty-eight employees of the UP there."

Sid Jakes pursed his lips. "I don't know. Possibly this whole thing was a
false alarm. At any rate, there seems to be a hotter case on the fire. If
our local agents have it straight, Paine is about to pull one of his coups
on Kropotkin. This is a top-top-secret, of course, one of the few times
we've ever detected him before the act."

Ronny was suddenly alert, his fatigue of disgust of but a moment ago,
completely forgotten. "Where?" he said.

"Kropotkin," Jakes said. "One of the most backward planets in UP and
seemingly a setup for Paine's sort of trouble making. The authorities, if
you can use the term applied to Kropotkin, are already complaining,
threatening to invoke Article One of the Charter, or to resign from UP."
Jake looked at Tog again. "Do you know Kropotkin, Lee Chang?"

She shook her head. "I've heard of it, rather vaguely. Named after some
old anarchist, I believe."

"That's the place. One of the few anarchist societies in UP. You don't
hear much from them." He turned to Ronny again. "I think that's your bet.
Hop to it, boy. We're going to catch this Tommy Paine guy, or
organization, or whatever, soon or United Planets is going to know it. We
can't keep the lid on indefinitely. If word gets around of his activities,
then we'll lose member planets like Christmas trees shedding needles after
New Year's." He grinned widely. "That's sounds like a neat trick, eh?"

-------------------------------------

Ronny Bronston had got to the point where he avoi