the front of the building,
obviously, and were now cut into sections. Corey tapped her shoulder,
pointing out the rout, and she gunned the car.

They were through too fast to draw fire from the busy groups of
battle-crazed men, leaping across the square and into the first side
street they could find. Then she slowed, and headed for the main street
back to Legal territory.

"Lucky we found a good car to steal," Mother Corey wheezed. He was
puffing now, mopping rivulets of perspiration from his face. "I'm
getting old, cobbers. Once I broke every strong-man record on
Earth--still stand, too. But not now. Senile!"

"You didn't have to come," Izzy said.

"When my own granddaughter comes crying for help? When she finally
admits she _needs_ her old grandfather?"

Gordon was staring back at the straggling of trucks he could see
beginning to break away. The raid was over, and the Legals had lost.
Trench had tricked him.

Izzy grunted suddenly. "Gov'nor, if you're right, and the plain gees pay
my salary, who's paying me to start fighting other cops? Or is it maybe
that somebody isn't being exactly honest with the scratch they lift from
the gees?"

"We still have to eat," Gordon said bitterly. "And to eat, we'll go on
doing what we're told."

Chapter XIV

FULL CIRCLE

Hendrix had been wounded lightly, and was out when Gordon and Izzy
reported. But the next day, they were switched to a new beat where
trouble had been thickest and given twelve-hour duty--without special
overtime.

Izzy considered it slowly and shook his head. "That does it, gov'nor. It
ain't honest, treating us this way. If the crackle comes from the
people, and these gees give everybody a skull cracking, then they're
crooks. It ain't honest, and I'm too sick to work. And if that bloody
doctor won't agree..."

He turned toward the dispensary. Gordon hesitated, and then swung off
woodenly to take up his new beat. Apparently, his reputation had gone
ahead of him, since most of the hoodlums had decided pickings would be
easier on some beat where the cops had their own secret rackets to
attend to, instead of head busting. But once they learned he was
alone...

But the second day, two of the citizens fell into step behind him almost
at once, armed with heavy clubs. Periodically during the shift,
replacements took their place, making sure that he was never by himself.
It surprised him even more when he saw that a couple of the men had come
ove