a man badly in need of a shave and his clothes looked
as if he had slept in them. He was the sixty-sixth applicant Roger had
seen that morning.

"Tad Winters," replied the man in a surly tone, "and hurry up with this
business. I haven't got all day!"

Roger looked up sharply. "You'll wait until I've had time to check your
application, sir. Or you can leave right now!"

"Listen, punk," snarled Winters, "I just saw your boss--"

"My boss?" asked Roger, puzzled.

"Yeah," said Winters. "Your boss, Vidac! And he said I was to tell you
to pass me!"

Roger stood up and looked the man in the eye. "You've had your space
papers suspended twice, Mr. Winters. Once for smuggling, and once for
insubordination on a deep-space merchantman. Your application to go to
Roald is rejected."

"We'll see about that!" growled Winters. "Gimme that, you space jerk!"
He snatched the application out of Roger's hand and stomped out of the
room.

Roger smiled. It was nothing new to him for the applicants to threaten
him and seek higher authority. He buzzed for the next applicant.

Meanwhile, Tom was interviewing a small man with heavy eyebrows and a
thin face. One side of his mouth twitched continually, making the man
look as though he were laughing. Tom read over the application and
looked up quickly.

"Mr. Bush," said Tom, "you've stated here that you were once a messenger
for the Spaceways Bonded Messenger Service and that you were dismissed.
Why was that?"

Ed Bush's mouth twitched as he played with his hat and stirred uneasily
in his chair. "I was framed," he said finally.

"Framed?" asked Tom.

"Yeah, framed!" snapped Bush. "I was taking a credit pouch to Venusport
from Atom City when it was stolen from me."

"Could you prove it?" asked Tom.

"How could I prove it when I don't know what happened to it?" growled
Bush. "Listen, Corbett, you can't hold a little thing like that against
me. A man is entitled to one mistake--"

Tom held up his hand. "Mr. Bush, you also had your space papers
suspended for six months and were caught during the suspension blasting
off with false papers. Was that a mistake?"

"Well, what do you expect a man to do? Go hungry? I've been a spaceman
longer than you've been alive. I had to have a job. There wasn't
anything else I could do." His voice trailed off into a whine.

"But you did, willfully and with full knowledge of your act, violate the
space code by using false papers, didn't you?" pursue