ppens all the time. Even the big
outfits need musclers. Staffmen, see? Sorta keep production up.

"Lot of guys get real big jobs that way. Start out, they're Staff
Assistance Specialists, like they roust the mugs when they got to.
Then pretty quick, they're all dressed up fancy, running things. Real
good deal." He shrugged.

"Need a heavy man once in a while, even in my business. Like maybe
some guy's got a good pad, he doesn't want a lot of prowlers shaking
up the neighbors. You know, gets the law too close, and a guy can't
work so good with a lot of joes hanging around. Might even decide to
make a search, then where'd you be?" He spread his hands.

"But there's some Johnny Raw, keeps coming around. And maybe this is a
pretty rough boy, you can't get on him personal, see. So the only
answer, you get some good heavy guy to teach this ape some ethics.
Lotta staffmen pick up extra pins this way."

"I think I get the idea. But suppose the law gets into this deal?"

Marlo spread his hands. "Well, this is a civil case, see, so long as
the chump don't turn in his ticket. So, anything comes up, you put an
ambassador on the job. He talks to the determinators and the joes
don't worry you none. Just costs a little something, is all."

Pete looked up from his packing, a smile twisting his face.

"Only trouble, some of these big boys fall in love with their work.
This can get real troublesome, like I pick up this five to ten this
way.

"See, they get this chump a couple too many. So, comes morning, he's
still in the street. Real tough swinging a parole, too. I'm in here
since five years, remember? So I'm real careful where I get muscle any
more."

"Sounds interesting." Stan nodded thoughtfully.

"Great Space and all the little Nebulae," he said to himself. "What
kind of a planet is this? Nothing in the histories about this sort of
thing." He walked over to the washstand.

"Some day," he promised himself, "I'm going to get out of here. And
when I do, I'll set up camp by Guard Headquarters. And I'll needle
those big brains till they do something about this."

There was, he remembered, one organization that should be able to do
more than a little in a case like this. He smiled to himself ruefully
as he thought of the almost legendary stories he had heard about the
Federation's Special Corps for Investigation.

As he remembered the stories, though, corpsmen seemed to appear from
nowhere when there was serious trouble. N