Hardwick suddenly looked as if he'd been jolted. But he nodded, and Werner tried to smile and failed. He was completely white. "My pilot from the ship, who's kept aground," said Hardwick. "Lieutenant Barnes. Very promising young officer. Cut my landing-time by hours. Lieutenant, this is Sector Chief Sandringham and Mr. Werner." "Have a seat, Hardwick," grunted the Chief. "You, too, lieutenant. How does it look up on the cliff, Hardwick?" "I suspect you know as well as I do," said Hardwick. "I think I saw a vision-camera planted up there." "True enough. But there's nothing like on-the-spot inspection. Now you're back, how does it look to you?" "Inadequate," said Hardwick with some dryness. "Inadequate to explain some things I've noticed. But it's a very bad situation. Its degree of badness depends on the viscosity of the mud at bedrock all over the island. The left-behind mud's like pea soup. It looks really bad! But what's the viscosity at bedrock with soil pressing down--and I hope drier soil than at the bottom?" Sandringham grunted. "Good question. I sent for you, Hardwick, when it began to look bad, before the ground really started sliding. When I thought it might begin any time. The viscosity averages pretty closely at three times ten to the sixth. Which still gives us some leeway. But not enough." "Not nearly enough!" said Hardwick impatiently. "Irrigation should have been stopped a long while back!" The Sector Chief grimaced. "I've no authority over civilians. They've their own planetary government. And do you remember?" He quoted: "'Civilian establishments and governments may be advised by Colonial Survey officials, and may make requests of them, but in each case such advice or request is to be considered on its own merits only, and in no case can it be the subject of a _quid-pro-quo_ agreement.'" He added grimly: "That means you can't threaten. It's been thrown at my head every time I've asked them to cut down their irrigation in the past fifteen years! I advised them not to irrigate at all, and they couldn't see it. It would increase the food-supply, and they needed more food. So they went ahead. They built two new sea-water freshening plants only last year!" Werner licked his lips. He said in a voice that was higher-pitched than Hardwick remembered: "What's happening serves them right! It serves them right!" Hardwick waited. * * * * * "Now," said Sandringham, "they are demanding to be let into Sector Headquarters for safety. They say we haven't irrigated, so the ground we occupy isn't going to slide. They demand that we take them all in here to sit on their rumps until the rest of the island slides into the sea or doesn't. If it doesn't, they want to wait here until the soil becomes stable again because they've quit irrigating." "It'd serve them right if we let them in!" cried Werner in shrill anger. "It's their fault that they're in this fix!" Sandringham waved his hand.