Dr. Brende made an attempt at a smile. "I think we are all a little overwrought--though with reason, no doubt. Sit down, Jac. Elza, come here by me. Don't look so solemn, child." He drew Elza to him, with his arm about her. I would have spoken, but his gesture checked me. "I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand these events, perhaps better than any of you. Let me go back two years--when I was in the Venus Central State." I nodded my remembrance; and he went on: "At that time the authorities there were greatly perturbed. They were menaced by rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold Country people into the Central State, for it is already overcrowded. You did not know that, did you?" "You mean the threatened rebellion?" I asked. "They were trying to keep it secret, but we heard rumors." "Just so. And Jac, I will tell you why they kept it secret. The Central State was encouraging emigration to the Earth. The Venus Cold Country is a poor place to live in--and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Central State did not want them within its borders; and so it kept secret its troubles with them--and encouraged emigration to the Earth. "We--as you know--make no distinction between Venus people. We are friendly with the Central State, and the Cold Country is governed by it--or was until tonight. Thus, you see, we have been in the position of having to receive these renegade immigrants. Shut out from all the good land and decent climate of Venus, they began coming here. "But we did not want them, and of late we have been holding them off, cutting the quota allowed very materially. Last week, as you also know, in Triple Conference, our three races decided to allow at each Inferior Conjunction of the Earth and Venus, so small a quota that the Central State protested vigorously. "The controversy has been hot; but the Central State--trying to foist off its undesirables on us--knows it is in the wrong. And fundamentally, it is friendly to us--I think it has proven that in the last two hours." Again I would have spoken, but he went on at once. "I know you're familiar with most of this, Jac. But you news-gatherers sometimes reason in too lurid a fashion. Let me go on. Mars was drawn into the affair. To extricate ourselves, we offered to admit--under temporary guard--all Venus immigrants who would pass on at once--at the first astronomical opportunity--to Mars. This would have been very nice for us--but not for Mars." "They are hot-headed, in Mars," Georg commented. "Quite so," said the doctor. "But very direct and forceful, nevertheless. They met our suggestion with a law excluding Venus immigrants entirely. It was this, I think, that precipitated tonight's events--though of course they must have been brewing for a long time." "This Tarrano--" I began.