Amateur in Chancery

By GEORGE O. SMITH
The creature from Venus didn't know right from left—and life and death hung in the balance!
Paul Wallach came into my office. He looked distraught. By some trick of selection, Paul Wallach, the director of Project Tunnel, was one of the two men in the place who did not have a string of doctor's and scholar's degrees to tack behind their names. The other was I.
Trouble, Paul? I asked.
He nodded, saying, The tunnel car is working.
It should. It's been tested enough.
Holly Carter drew the short straw.
Er— I started and then stopped short as the implication became clear. She's—she's—not—?
Holly made it to Venus all right, he said. Trouble is we can't get her back.
Can't get her back?
He nodded again. You know, we've never really known very much about the atmosphere of Venus.
Yes.