"Absolutely certain. It looked like one of the men with a beard we sent through about a month ago. Do you remember?"
"But how did he get hold of him?"
"I can't think. The stellar-reporters are going off all right. I thought they were coming back empty. I've had to let the rest of my class know, so that we could keep the records faked. We can't account for two hundred stellar-reporters all to the same planet, Morry, so I had to."
I sent the next bunch of emigrants back with a message to John Thay. He came the next afternoon and we met on the edge of the desert. I explained what had happened.
"Is Dimples certain?" he asked.
"The man had a beard and was still in his crystal, the way we sent him off."
John shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, Morry, it can't be helped. There's only one course now. We must get hold of any crystals in the hands of David Adam Smith and send them off again—unless you and Dimples and all of us want to end up in a satellite penitentiary. I expect he's preparing a case against us now. With his influence he can make it stick. No doubt about that."
Illegal emigration, criminal use of the Institute property—oh, from that angle there was enough to have us all put away in space all right. I had no doubt that David Adam Smith would do it, too.