Star Chamber by H.B. Fyfe

_There were no courts on the isolated world._

_But there was a Judge._

At the roar of landing rockets, Quasmin's first impulse was to dash out / to the hilltop to scan the skies.

When he left his shack, however, he did so cautiously, carrying a small / telescope salvaged from the crack-up of his own ship. This planet was / so far beyond the Terran sphere of exploration that he feared the / new-comers might not be human.

He was surprised to sight the spaceship settling about half a mile / away, in the vicinity of the wreck. The lines seemed to be Terran.

"They picked that spot on purpose," he muttered. "Couldn't be somebody / after me, could it?"

There was no lack of good reason for the law to be after him. In the / first place, the battered hull out there had not belonged to him. In / the second, the authorities might be trying to find out what had become / of the original crew. Quasmin could not answer that even if he wanted / to -- a corpse was difficult to locate in interstellar space.

He took advantage of the cooling period after the ship had touched down / to make his way through the scrubby growth that resembled a forest / except for the purplish color of the drooping fronds. He found a good / spy point on a low hill and settled down to watch.

In due time, the airlock within Quasmin's view opened. A single / space-suited figure climbed clumsily down the ladder, paused to glance / about, and walked a circuit of the ship as if to survey the terrain.

Apparently deciding that nothing dangerous flew or crept in the / vicinity, the spacer returned to the base of the ladder to remove his / suit. He dropped it there, hitched at his belt -- suggesting to Quasmin / the weight of a weapon -- and began to stroll across the turf of springy / creepers toward the wreck. Quasmin followed as sneakily as he could.

Passing the strange ship, some instinct told him that it was now / unoccupied. The whole attitude of the spacer had suggested a man as / much alone as Quasmin himself. The latter temporarily abandoned his / skulking pace to walk boldly where he might be seen by any crew members / on watch. No activity resulted.

Keeping one eye on the distant figure, Quasmin moved toward the / spacesuit at the foot of the ladder. Just as he was about to reach out / for it, the air took on the resiliency of sponge-covered springs and / thrust his outstretched hand right back at him.

"Force shield! " he growled. "Damn! Probably set to his voice or some / such code. Well, I can't get closer, but it proves he must be alone."

He squinted at the nametape on the breast of the spacesuit and read, / "J. Trolla."

Then he hurried after the spacer, who was just disappearing behind a / clump of shrubbery.

He could not decide later just when Trolla had in some fashion become / aware of him. Quasmin could remember no careless move that might have / given him away, nor did he think it likely that he was confronted by / a practiced telepath. Such people existed, but they were not normally / permitted to risk their unique talents flitting about the unexplored / depths of interstellar space. Quasmin blamed it on natural animal / instinct.

If he could have seen Trolla during the latter's inspection of the / wrecked ship's interior, he would have worried even more. It was no / idle poking about for possible salvage. The spacer spent over an hour / examining those compartments accessible without the use of a torch to / burn away crumpled metal and plastic bulkheads. He displayed unusual / interest in things of obscure value, such as articles of clothing and / empty plastic crates that had once held food supplies.

He also talked a good deal to himself in a low voice, but the battered / hull concealed this from the man lurking outside.

That there was a watcher there, Trolla stopped doubting when he / mentally summed up the amount of minor equipment obviously removed from / the ship since the crash. He decided it was not necessary to penetrate / the broken-up drive sections in what had been the lower levels before / the hull had toppled over. The scavenging looked like the work of one / individual unable to salvage any of the heavier machinery.

"Just took some things to make himself more comfortable," he murmured. / "A few instruments, food, medicines, self-powered appliances, and the / like."