Free Space Lawyer by Mike Jurist Page A

turned up." He grinned wryly. "But nothing's turned up, so it doesn't matter now."
    "We ain't even turned up a space mirage," grunted Jem.
    "The regular asteroid lanes are pretty well covered by now," explained Kerry. "Even bits of debris not more than a few yards in diameter are staked out, filed and exploited. The first space rush is over. The original prospectors are drinking away their gains or they're dead; the big outfits moved in, took them over and put exploration on a systematic, fine-comb basis. But this patch of space hasn't been gone over much. I thought perhaps we'd run into a find. Something like that nickel-iron asteroid that brought Kenton almost six millions in cash."
    "So that's it, huh?" snorted Jem disgustedly. "We come out here wild-goosing for treasure. That's even wuss than hunting for distressed ships to salvage where there ain't no ships. Sometimes a boat does go off course and gets into trouble. But y'oughta knowed there ain't any asteroids out in this part o' space. There's the reg'lar belt and there's the Trojan belt way the hell an' gone off to one side, what belongs to Jupiter. But this here place where we're now ain't neither one nor t'other."
    "So I'm finding out," Kerry admitted. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I can't be blamed for trying. Especially when I got word there was a Kenton ship nosing around these parts looking for the same thing I was."
    "What?" they both yelled. "A Kenton ship?"
    "How d'you know?" demanded Sparks. "They keep those exploration boats pretty quiet."
    "Oh," said Kerry airily, "a few drinks of pulla back on Planets and a second mate who'd never drunk it before. Just before he passed out he said something about blasting off the next day under sealed orders. Seems a half-crazed prospector had been picked up in midspace by a Kenton ship. He died before they came into port and the captain screened Old Fireball for orders. When Kenton heard what the ravings had been about, he told the captain to dump the body into space and keep quiet."
    "The old man's still on his toes," Jem's tone was admiring.
    "He don't let nothing slip by."
    Kerry said dismally, "I gave them a day's start, thinking I could keep them in sight. But they were speedier than I thought. Oh, well, it doesn't matter. I suppose they didn't find anything, either. They must have turned back."
    "Like we should."
    "Might as well, Jem. We're beginning to run short on fuel and provisions. Better tell the engineer—"
    "Hey, what's that?" yelled Sparks suddenly.
    A faint wisp of sound wavered from the open screen; and a pale shadow danced like a quaking aspen over the white expanse.
    "It's a message," cried Kerry excitedly. "Step up the power." Sparks stepped up the power, but neither sound nor shadow gained in clarity.
    "Hell!" said Sparks, disgusted. "It's a private wave length. Nothing for us."
    "That's what you think," retorted Kerry. "Can't you get on that length?"
    "I could; but I ain't."
    "Why not?"
    "It's against the law to listen in on private lengths. Says so in the regulations. I got 'em right here."
    "Suppose as owner I order you to."
    "Still wouldn't do it, Mr. Dale," Sparks answered doggedly. "It'd be worth my license. And besides, I don't aim to go breaking no laws."
    Kerry grinned approval. "Good for you, Sparks. Glad to hear you talking that way. As a lawyer I don't believe in breaking laws. But there's no law against interpreting the law so it swings to your side."
    "The rule about listening in is plain as can be," insisted Sparks. "There never was no getting round it."
    "Oh, no? On the 6th of November, 2273, Chief Justice Clark, sitting in the Supreme Court of Judicature for the Planetary District of the Moon, handed down a unanimous decision in the case of Berry, plaintiff-appellee, versus Opp, defendant-appellant, covering an exactly similar situation.
    `The law,' he wrote, 'is not an inelastic instrument. It may be stretched on occasion to mete out substantial justice in cases where the march