able _modus operandi_, changing his methods with
each new crime. He never left a clue. But, in bravado, he signed his
name to every job: his monicker flattered him, and after each
malefaction the victim--usually a government agency, a giant
corporation, or one of the clan enterprises of the smaller
planets--would receive a message consisting merely of the impudent
depiction of a large wriggling eel.

They got him at last, of course. The Galactic Police, like the
prehistoric Royal Canadian Mounted, have the reputation of always
catching their man. (Sometimes they don't catch him till he's dead,
but they catch him.) It took them 26 years, and it was a hard job, for
The Eel always worked alone and never talked afterward.

They did it by the herculean labor of investigating the source of the
fortune of every inhabitant of Earth, since all that was known was
that The Eel was a terrestrial. Every computer in the Federation
worked overtime analyzing the data fed into it. It wasn't entirely a
thankless task, for, as a by-product, a lot of embezzlers, tax evaders
and lesser robbers were turned up.

In the end, it narrowed down to one man who owned more than he could
account for having. Even so, they almost lost him, for his takings
were cached away under so many pseudonyms that it took several months
just to establish that they all belonged to the same person. When that
was settled, the police swooped. The Eel surrendered quietly; the one
thing he had been surest of was never being apprehended, and he was so
dumfounded he was unable to put up any resistance.

And then came the still greater question: which of the planets was to
have him?

* * * * *

Xystil said it had the first right because his theft there had been
the largest--a sum so huge, it could be expressed only by an algebraic
index. Artha's argument was that his first recorded crime had been on
that planet. Medoris wanted him because its only penalty for any
felony is an immediate and rather horrible death, and that would
guarantee getting rid of The Eel forever.

Ceres put in a claim on the ground that it was the only planet or moon
in the Sol System in which he had operated, and since he was a
terrestrial, it was a matter for local jurisdiction. Eb pleaded that
it was the newest and poorest member of the Galactic Federation, and
should have been protected in its inexperience against his
thievishness.

Ha-Almirath argued that