eople--morally clean and healthy.
Not this collection of mental cripples, alcoholics and thieves. Probably
half of them are wanted men!"

He argued further, unable to believe that this was Jaimison's great
fifty-fifty chance. He said many things ... and regretted every one; for
that night the telecasts carried a recorded version of his outburst.
Jaimie had maneuvered him into saying things he didn't quite mean, so
that it looked as if he was trying to hide the all good things on Venus
and save them for his own friends. One commentator said outright that if
you weren't a college graduate recommended by one of Workham's friends,
it would cost you a thousand dollars to get on an outgoing ship. By the
next morning, half the papers in the world were after Workham's scalp.

* * * * *

Rod could only take the abuse and grind his teeth. How did you fight a
thing like that? You were condemned if you kept silent, and if you
answered, people nodded their heads and said, "See--he's still trying to
deny it."

The failures from the old colonies were Rod's only allies. They tried to
tell people what Venus was like, and what lies Carlson and his stooge
Jaimison were using for bait. But it was pointed out that these men
naturally had a stake in the secret ... and, after all, everyone knew
how well off the returning colonists were! This was actually due to the
high premium paid to get men to go to the planet, but no one believed.

Days passed. Weeks. The compounds filled, and emptied, and filled again.
People stood in lines to apply. They walked miles to appear at a
recruiting center. They fought for a place on the next ship, or the one
after that. Farmers, clerks, ragged families, hoboes, armed men,
teen-age boys and old men. Four thousand people applied in the first few
months and were shipped out. Then the crowds thinned, even though the
Get Rich propaganda continued. Soon, only a few hundred appeared where
there had been thousands; then twos and threes; at last only a dozen or
so a day, many of whom changed their minds before the full shipload had
been assembled.

Rod clung to his job throughout. He had little to do, though his
department had never been formally discontinued. Sooner or later, he
knew, their services would be needed--when this cheap trick had failed.
So he and his staff remained. Studying old files, making up test
batteries, discussing survival factors, they readied themselves for