few yards away, who showed every evidence that he was about to scratch his initials in one of the pseudo-marble columns with his pen-knife.

"SEVERN ALON, TERRITORIAL CHIEFTAIN, IO."

"The Noble Experiment," Chris said, "Do they really think it will work?"

"What's that?" Camilla said. "Say, look! There's a funny one coming in now."

His answer was drowned. "DR. GOR JEETL, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF FOREIGN RELATIONS, FIRST ADMINISTRATIVE DISTRICT, SATURN."

There was a lull of sound below, followed by a high-pitched song of excitement. It had been rumored that Saturn would send no representative to this meeting.

Dr. Gor Jeetl was alone, but it might have been remarked (as doubtless it was many times) that he was quite a congregation by himself. He appeared to be of Terran extraction, except that no Earthman of modern times was ever so huge. He must have weighed more than the entire Martian contingent.

Roughly eight feet in height, his girth was such that when he walked it was like the progression of an out-sized balloon, all dressed in loose-fitting blue uniform.

"What a bel—" Camilla said. "I mean, look at the size of him."

"Disgusting," said Chris.

Gor Jeetl, if he sensed the hostility in that gigantic meeting house, gave no sign of it. Propelling his paunch agilely before him, he beamed benignly upon them all as he made his way to the council table.

He took a seat—rather, tried to take a seat. It was impossible. A hurried conference. They brought another quickly, without confining arm-rests. He flowed onto it, gratefully.

The guards began to clear the main floor, boosting the crowd back upstairs. It was almost time for the assembly to come to order.

But there was something not right here. Camilla sensed it. An undercurrent of tenseness about the great table below. The look on Chris's face. A wolf-like watchfulness. Chris always expected the worst, she knew from hard experience, but this was something special.

"They're frightened," she said with sudden inspiration. "Why are they frightened?"

Chris gave her a look of sour disapproval. "You're a reporter," he said 

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