THE PAPERS WERE INTERESTING. Nowhere was it stated, but a glance at the front pages showed they were on opposite sides of the political fence. On my planet, we keep the editorial opinion in the editorial columns. Not so with these. The wire services were impartial and the accounts in both papers identical. That was as far as the similarities went. Reading the other accounts was like living in two worlds.
An informed people will always be free. Well, perhaps these weren't typical.
I was to see papers a lot worse than these before long.
I was just starting the want ads when the knock came at the door. It was the maid, again; the jeweler was at the house.
A small man, suave and dark, with the manners of a diplomat, fawning like a puppy.
It was a perfect stone, he decided. He had, he was
