Dan had just decided that the planet looked almost like home when he came to a low building with a paved yard. Into the yard trundled several small carts, similar to the kind used to transfer baggage in railroad and mataform depots back home. On these carts, however, were canvas covers, which were thrown back to reveal fully clothed human forms. On all but one cart, the human forms wore the same kind of white garment, trimmed in various colors. These forms--bodies, Dan supposed--were lifted from the carts by attendants who handled them with the greatest care and respect. On the other cart, though, the bodies wore street clothes. These bodies were grabbed under the arms, dragged to a black door like the door of a furnace, set in the wall of the building, and shoved through the door head first. As the bodies were shoved in, Dan saw the sunlight glint on what looked like tight metal cords around their necks, bearing oblong metal tags. Several men had stopped while Dan glanced in to watch this scene. Dan now overheard their comments, which were made in tense angry tones: "Look at that. If this referendum isn't over soon, it'll dust the lot of us over the forest." "It's all these charges and accusations that make the trouble. Why we can't do it like civilized human beings, I don't know." "The trouble is, there's no precedent." The men walked away. Dan had the out-of-focus sensation of a man who comes into a room where a joke has already been half-told. He glanced at the low building. "Are you getting all this, Kielgaard?" "We're getting it. But I hope it makes more sense to you than it does to us." "Well, it doesn't." Dan glanced around, noted the discreet word "DISPOSAL" printed on the face of the small building where the bodies were shoved through what looked like a furnace door. Dan thought he could see what was going on here, but the reasons for the things that were happening were totally obscure to him. It was in the next block that he began to get some sort of an idea, when he saw a large poster bearing a blue triangle standing point down. Stamped over this triangle were large letters: VOTE YES! Several blocks away was a big poster showing a green triangle, its base down, and bearing the words: VOTE NO! * * * * * Both posters were dented, scratched, and spattered, as if stones and rotten fruit had been thrown at them. But, though Dan watched carefully as he walked on toward the center of the city, he saw no clue as to what the voting was about. He was also puzzled to find that, though there were many stores, and a fair number of what looked like hotels, office buildings, and apartment houses, there seemed to be no factories, large or small.