seconds. He showed the official seal from the Claims Office proving that this was so.

"Your liner Hermes," he said, "will intersect the orbit of the planet Plymouth some 17,000 miles from Plymouth. The atomic wash from the Hermes' drivers will infect space for 100,000 miles around; this is standard knowledge and has been proved in court. Legal precedent has also established that nucleonic, gravitonic, or positronic infection of planetary farmlands constitutes a serious misdemeanor for which damages, both punitive and otherwise, may be sought."

Gramenger grinned. "Let me see those papers." He looked them over, chuckling. Once he looked up.

"Planetary farmlands, huh? And this planet is a hunk of rock out in space. Frozen. Only 483 miles in diameter. No atmosphere." He scooped up the interoffice 'phone. "Phil!" he said. "Get up here. I want you to prove something to a loco joking yokel I've got up here in the office." He hung up. "That's my lawyer," he said, leaning back and folding his hands over his capacious stomach. "Too bad. Maybe you'll learn a lesson from this."

"May I ask what your birthday is?" Harvey asked.

Gramenger told him. Harvey's jaw came out. "Cancer. Yes, I can see we will have to fight this out."

The lawyer came in. He smiled a little when Gramenger explained. He looked at the papers. He shook a sleek head. He handed the papers to Harvey.

"You don't stand a chance, man. Have you looked into the definition of what constitutes planetary farmlands?"

"What is the definition?" said Harvey.

"Planetary farmlands, legally and simply, are the natural surface or portions of the surface of a planet of any size which could support vegetative growths of any kind. Your mistake here is that this planetoid, and every other such a body that has been discovered, does not have a soil surface. Ergo, it cannot support plant life."

"If it did have a soil surface," Harvey said.

The lawyer looked at him whimsically. "It couldn't," he said, in what was meant as a kindly tone. "These odd-sized bodies that wander through space have invariably been discovered to be crystallized, meteoric, inorganic materials from top to bottom."

"But if it did have soil, natural, original surface 

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