into his cup.

"Along about quitting time, they came after me. Mister, I don't like
to think of that! I been beat up a lot since, but them's just little
reminders. Those guys really enjoyed their work!"

Sornal shuddered and set his cup down. Finally, he sighed and
continued.

He had left the hospital, muttering grim threats of the legal action
he would take. And he'd limped over to file a complaint at the
Federation Residency.

"I didn't get there. Next thing I knew, I was in some cell." He looked
up at Stan.

"Now I know where I see you. You're in that van, going out of some
jail."

"Yeah." Stan nodded, looking at his own empty cup.

"Tell me something," he said slowly. "When that maintenance crew was
working around your machine, did they have a gravito clamp!"

"Clamp? Yeah ... yeah, I suppose they might have. Use 'em a lot around
here when they've got heavy stuff, and those guys had a lot of stuff
to move."

"I see. Wonder if the field head got pointed at your machine?"

"I don't think ... I dunno, I didn't watch 'em close." Sornal looked
sharply at Stan.

"You mean, they mighta--"

"Well, what could cause a temporary misflow?"

"Yeah!" Sornal bobbed his head slowly. "Funny I didn't think of that."

"So anyway, you went up to Opertal?"

"Yeah. Had me for evasion of obligation. Said I owed the company
plenty for the damage done by the blowup. Claimed I'd tried to run
out.

"They wouldn't let me in the machine shop up there. Had me out hauling
stuff for the landscape crew. Then, they paroled me back here. Back to
the machines again, only I ain't a contract man any more. Junior
machinist. Oh, it's better than helper, I guess, only they don't pay
much." Sornal pushed himself away from the table.

"I'm going to be real careful with my work from now on," he said.
"They got me for quite a while, but that sentence'll run out one of
these days. I'll get me out of parole and pay off that claim, then I'm
getting out of here. They aren't hanging another one on me."

"Only one trouble," Stan told him. "You're getting so careful, you're
setting yourself up."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. They'll tack you down for malingering if you don't watch it."
Stan got to his feet.

"Tell you what you do. Run things just as you did when you were a
contract man. Only one thing--if any crew comes around, pull a sample
after they leave. And check it. You know how to check for magnetic and
gravitic deviations. Do that, then go ah