 Why does Meyerhoff arrest Zeckler?
Meyerhoff followed the huge, bear-like Altairian guard down the slippery flagstones of the corridor, sniffing the dead, musty air with distaste. He drew his carefully tailored Terran-styled jacket closer about his shoulders, shivering as his eyes avoided the black, yawning cell-holes they were passing. He executed a deep, awkward bow, motioning Meyerhoff into the dark cubicle. Why, I've been in here for years—" "Look, Zeckler, the name is Meyerhoff, and I'm not your pal," Meyerhoff snapped. "These overgrown teddy-bears don't know what brotherhood means, nor humanity, either. I sent an appeal to the Terran Consulate the first day I was arrested. I've got three million credits sitting in the Terran Consulate on Altair V, just waiting for me to walk in and pick them up. Meyerhoff sank down beside the man, his voice a tense whisper in the musty cell. "You've committed the most heinous crime these creatures can imagine, and they're going to get you for it if it's the last thing they do. I'm afraid, my friend, that your con-man days are over." Zeckler fished in the other man's pocket, extracted a cigarette, and lighted it with trembling fingers. The first men in were the richest out, and through some curious quirk of the Terrestrial mind, they knew they could count on Terran protection, however crooked and underhand their methods. Altair I had been recognized at once by the Trading Commission as a commercial prize of tremendous value, but early reports had warned of the danger of wildcat trading on the little, musty, jungle-like planet with its shaggy, three-eyed inhabitants—warned specifically against the confidence tactics so frequently used—but there was always somebody, Meyerhoff reflected sourly, who just didn't get the word. Meyerhoff pulled a pipe from his pocket, and began stuffing the bowl with infinite patience. They've built up the most confusing and impossible system of barter and trade imaginable, aimed at individual survival, with land as the value behind the credit. Lying is the time-honored tradition, with their entire legal system built around it." They have only the haziest idea what truth represents, and they've shrugged off the idea as impossible and useless." Encroachment on private property is legal grounds for murder on this planet, and twelve of them descended on the same chunk of land at the same time, all armed with title-deeds."
 He arrests Zeckler for undermining the authority of the Terran Trading Commission.
 He arrests Zeckler for perjury.  He arrests Zeckler for undermining the authority of the Terran Trading Commission.  He arrests Zeckler for murdering eighteen Altairians.  He arrests Zeckler for selling the same plot of land to a dozen different Altairians.