Douglas looked very thoughtful. Someone apparently spoke to him from off screen, but no words came over the telephone. At last he said, "Even if what you said were true, Doctor, you can't be in a position to speak for young Smith. He's a ward of the State."
Jubal shook his head. "Impossible. The Larkin Decision."
"Now see here, as a lawyer myself, I assure you-"
"As a lawyer myself, I must follow my own opinion - and protect my client."
"You are a lawyer? I thought that you meant that you claimed to be attorney-in-fact, rather than counsellor."
"Both. You'll find that I am an attorney at law, in good standing, and admitted to practice before the High Court. I don't hang my shingle these days, but I am." Jubal heard a dull boom from below and glanced aside. Larry whispered, "The front door, I think. Boss- Shall I go look?"
Jubal shook his head in negation and spoke to the screen. "Mr. Secretary, while we quibble, time is running out. Even now your men - your S.S. hooligans - are breaking into my house. It is most distasteful to be under siege in my own home. Now, for the first and last time, will you abate this nuisance? So that we can negotiate peaceably and equitably? Or shall we fight it out in the High Court with all the stink and scandal that would ensue?"
Again the Secretary appeared to speak with someone off screen. He turned back, looking troubled. "Doctor, if the Special Service police are trying to arrest you, it is news to me. I do not see-"
"If you'll listen closely, you'll hear them tromping up my staircase, sir! Mike! Anne! Come here." Jubal shoved his chair back to allow the camera angle to include three people. "Mr. Secretary General Douglas - the Man from Mars!" He did not, of course, introduce Anne, but she and her white cloak of probity were fully in view.
Douglas stared at Smith; Smith looked back at him and seemed uneasy. "Jubal-"
"Just a moment, Mike. Well, Mr. Secretary? Your men have broken into my house - I hear them pounding on my study door this moment." Jubal turned his head. "Larry, unbolt the door. Let them in." He put a hand on Mike. "Don't get excited, lad, and don't do anything unless I tell you to."
"Yes, Jubal. That man. I have know him."
"And he knows you." Over his shoulder Jubal called out to the now open door, "Come in, Sergeant. Right over here."
The S.S. sergeant standing in the doorway, mob gun at the ready, did not come in. Instead he called out, "Major! Here they are!"
Douglas said, "Let me speak to the officer in charge of them, Doctor." Again he spoke off screen.
Jubal was relieved to see that the major for whom the sergeant had shouted showed up with his sidearm still in its holster; Mike's shoulder had been trembling under Jubal's hand ever since the sergeant's gun had come into view - and, while Jubal lavished no fraternal love on these troopers, he did not want Smith to display his powers� and cause awkward questions.
The major glanced around the room. "You're Jubal Harshaw?"
"Yes. Come over here. Your boss wants you."
"None of that. You come along. I'm also looking for-"
"Come here! The Secretary General himself wants a word with you - on this phone."
The S.S. major looked startled, then came on into the study, around Jubal's desk, and in sight of the screen - looked at it, suddenly came smartly to attention and saluted. Douglas nodded. "Name, rank, and duty."
"Sir, Major C. D. Bloch, Special Service Squadron Cheerio, Maryland Enclave Barracks."
"Now tell me what you are doing where you are, and why."
"Sir, that's rather complicated. I-"
"Then unravel it for me. Speak up, Major."
"Yes, sir. I came here pursuant to orders. You see-"
"I don't see."
"Well, sir, about an hour and a half ago a flying squad was sent here to make several arrests. They didn't report in when they should have and when we couldn't raise them by radio, I was sent with the reserve squad to find them and render assistance as needed."
"Whose orders?"
"Uh, the Commandant's, sir."
"And did you find them?"
"No, sir. Not a trace of them."
Douglas looked at Harshaw. "Counsellor, did you see anything of another squad, earlier?"
"It's no part of my duties to keep track of your servants, Mr. Secretary. Perhaps they got the wrong address. Or simply got lost."
"That is hardly an answer to my question."
"You are correct, sir. I am not being interrogated. Nor will I be, other than by due process. I am acting for my client; I am not nursemaid to these uniformed, uh, persons. But I suggest, from what I have seen of them, that they might not be able to find a pig in a bath tub."
"Mmm� possibly. Major, round up your men and return. I'll confirm that via channels."
"Yes, sir!" The major saluted.
"Just a moment!" Harshaw said sharply. "These men broke into my house. I demand to see their warrant."
"Oh. Major, show him your search warrant."
Major Bloch turned brick red. "Sir, the officer ahead of me had the warrants. Captain Heinrich. The one who's missing."
Douglas stared at him. "Young man� do you mean to stand there and tell me that you broke into a citizen's home without a warrant?"
"But- Sir, you don't understand! There was a warrant - there are warrants. I saw them. But, of course, Captain Heinrich took them with him. Sir."
Douglas just looked at him. "Get on back. Place yourself under arrest when you get there. I'll see you later."
"Yes, sir."
"Hold it," Harshaw demanded. "Under the circumstances I shan't let him leave. I exercise my right to make a citizen's arrest. I shall take him down and charge him in this township and have him placed in our local lockup. 'Armed breaking and entering.'"
Douglas blinked thoughtfully. "Is this necessary, sir?"
"I think it is. These fellows seem to be awfully hard to find when you want them - so I don't want to let this one leave our local jurisdiction. Why, aside from the serious criminal charges, I haven't even had opportunity to assess the damage to my property."
"You have my assurance, sir, that you will be fully compensated."
"Thank you, sir. But what is to prevent another uniformed joker from coming along twenty minutes from now, perhaps this time with a warrant? Why, he wouldn't even need to break down the door! My castle stands violated, open to any intruder. Mr. Secretary, only the few precious moments of delay afforded by my once-stout door kept this scoundrel from dragging me away before I could reach you by telephone� and you heard him say that there was still another like him at large - with, so he says, warrants."
"Doctor, I assure you that I know nothing of any such warrant."
"Warrants, sir. He said 'warrants for several arrests.' Though perhaps a better term would be 'lettres de cachet.'"
"That's a serious imputation."
"This is a serious matter. You see what has already been done to me."
"Doctor, I know nothing of these warrants, if they exist. But I give you my personal assurance that I will look into it at once, find out why they were issued, and act as the merits of the matter may appear. Can I say more?"
"You can say a great deal more, sir. I can reconstruct exactly why those warrants were issued. Some one in your service, in an excess of zeal, caused a pliant judge to issue them� for the purpose of seizing the persons of myself and my guests in order to question us, safely out of your sight. Out of anyone's sight, sir! We will discuss all issues with you but we will not be questioned by such as this creature-" Jubal hooked a thumb at the S.S. major "-in some windowless back room! Sir, I hope for, and expect, justice at your hands� but if those warrants are not canceled at once, if I am not assured by you personally beyond any possibility of quibble that the Man from Mars, Nurse Boardman, and myself will be left undisturbed in our persons, free to come and go, then-" Jubal stopped and shrugged helplessly. "-I must seek a champion elsewhere. There are, as you know, persons and powers outside the administration who hold deep interest in the affairs of the Man from Mars."