Mr. Corrigan since we left you last night."
He chatted on, telling Tappan of the prospector who had called on him this morning, and how he had needed a little money to finance the claim until it began to produce. Tappan listened with an air of semidetachment, letting his fingers wander over a small jukeboxlike device in front of him.
They finished their coffee and Tappan bade the little diamond buyer good-by. Van der Bush said: "I am going to come up and see you one of these days, Mr. Tappan. I expecde to pe here for some time."
Tappan hurried to his office. Shelia was just putting some mail on his desk when he entered. She looked up and said cheerfully: "Good morning, Boss. I—"
He interrupted her with, "Quick, get the permit office. Tell 'em Van der whosis is coming over to get a prospector's permit. I want him stalled until they can give him the tests. Tell 'em that they can tell him that they give them to everybody who applies for one, or anything."
She moved instantly to obey. Tappan dialed Balik, and when the plainclothes man's face appeared on the telescreen, he said:"Go by and pick up the latest on Van der Bush and head for the permit office. I want you to, get him out as soon as they finish quizzing him. No excitement. If you work fast, he won't know what's happened. Ask him about the prospector, too. Might be interesting to meet him."
Balik grinned, "I was watching you when it happened. Good work, Chief. And I know who the 'prospector' was, too. Want to talk to him?"
"No. It won't be necessary. It wasn't his fault. We should've picked the diamond man up sooner."
"Roger. Don't worry about him, Chief. He won't know what happened 'til he's landing at Luna City." Balik replied confidently, signing off.
Shutting the set off, Tappan leaned back in his chair. His secretary entered saying, "They said they had him, Chief. He was already there when I called." Her face wore a puzzled frown. "But I don't understand why you want to kick him out. He was a nice little guy, really. How come?"
Tappan chuckled. "I suppose you should know what happened, since you helped a bit. Sit down and I'll try to explain." She complied, and Tappan rose from his chair and seated himself on the corner of the desk. "You see," he began, "that's just the reason we don't want him around—because he's such a harmless little chap. Probably never did anyone any harm in his life—consciously. That made him an extremely dangerous type around here, however. He could have caused more damage than an exploding meteor. You see, just as ordinary society considers the criminal dangerous, here we consider harmless little characters like Van der Bush dangerous because of the harm he can cause criminals to do
