"Damn the reports!" snapped the inspector. "I want to know why this planet hasn't been cared for properly!" He darkened his body with a scowl. * * * * * Krembyl fumbled the document open, flipped a few pages. "Here it is, sir. All written down, sir. All in correct order, sir. "_Cosmos 66, 9238_," he read. "_Malignant growth noted._ "_Cosmos 67, 9238 Decontamination process begun._ "_Method: Entire planet encircled with electrical impulses which caused hydrogen and oxygen to unite into a heavy liquid. Process continued for a full 40 of planet revolutions._ "_Result: Planet covered with the liquid to an average depth of 30 fathoms. Contaminating element, being oxygen-breathing, could not possibly exist under such conditions._" "Fool!" barked Ryt. "Some of them probably floated to the surface on some of the buoyant vegetation. They may even have made rafts of the vegetation. Or a boat!" "They are exceedingly persistent and adaptable, sir," Krembyl admitted. "And there were other times...." He broke off to fumble through the documented account. "Yes, here it is, all written down in correct form...." "Damn the reports!" snapped the inspector. "Tell me what happened!" "Well, sir," said Krembyl, scanning the pages carefully, "it was back in 9237. I noticed the malignancy and took proper measures. I took the planet from its orbit and into an area remote from the Sol unit. There, in the intense cold, the polar caps grew larger and larger until they finally extended over the land portions. Even the middle belt became frigid. Then I swung the planet back near Sol and let it soak in tropical heat. I subjected the planet to this treatment three--or was it four?--times before placing it back permanently in its orbit." "Dolt!" said Ryt. "They probably hid away in deep crevices. Probably remained alive through the treatment by eating each other!" He looked at the unhappy Krembyl for a devastating minute. "You should have used fire. _Burned them out!_" "But I _did_, sir!" Krembyl said, hurriedly. "I _did_!" He fumbled rapidly through the pages. "Here it is, right here! All written out! "_Nebula 42, 9235. Persistence of malignant contamination noted...._" He broke off abruptly as the inspector's body turned to brittle obsidion. "H-m-mm.... A-hh.... Well, sir, finding them confined in an area of particularly lush vegetation, I burned them out, chased them with fire into arid regions, and swept the garden of plant growth completely away where they could not find it again." "But it is obvious that you failed! Even if two of them succeeded in escaping...." "And before that, sir," Krembyl hurried on. "Before that, I shook the land masses violently, rent great fissures that permitted the gasses and flames to leap out from the central core and spread destruction. I submerged huge infected areas into the depths of the seas, and brought up new land masses, fresh and clean, into the light of Sol. I even...."