diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-0.txt | 1578 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-0.zip | bin | 29935 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-h.zip | bin | 466316 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-h/64641-h.htm | 1779 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 233949 -> 0 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/64641-h/images/illus.jpg | bin | 201370 -> 0 bytes |
9 files changed, 17 insertions, 3357 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e04a756 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64641 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64641) diff --git a/old/64641-0.txt b/old/64641-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 641d2ca..0000000 --- a/old/64641-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1578 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Oh Mesmerist From Mimas!, by Roger Dee - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Oh Mesmerist From Mimas! - -Author: Roger Dee - -Release Date: February 26, 2021 [eBook #64641] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OH MESMERIST FROM MIMAS! *** - - - - - Oh Mesmerist from Mimas! - - By ROGER DEE - - _This gloriously gay smiley character; this - astounding peace-pervading creature from Saturn's - inner moon, was radiating like a space beacon - in a meteor shower when it landed on Mars ... - it was madness ... gargantuan madness._ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories January 1953. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -The Cargo Declarations mart at Areopolis spaceport was humming busily -when I walked in. A moment later it was as quiet as a church and twice -as attentive. - -The sudden hush that fell wasn't out of deference to me, though I'm -pretty well known through the odd corners of the Solar System, but -because of the Mimasan smiley I carried in a ten-inch tungsten wire -cage under my arm. Nothing this side of Saturn's inner moon can lay -down the euphoric aura of peace and brotherhood that a smiley can, and -this one was doing a noble job of it. He was one of the first two ever -to hit Mars, young and healthy and still unmated, and he was radiating -like a space beacon in a meteor shower. - -"Hey, it's Blaster Bill Bailey," I heard a trader--an Earthside homo by -the sound of him--say. "What's the beautiful little item you brought -back this time, Bill?" - -They crowded around me, Earthies and Eetees--Extraterrestrials--alike, -all trying to get closer to that lovely peace-be-on-you euphoria. I -looked them over carefully, counting the house and estimating their -probable bids, and for the hundredth time it struck me that the place -was more like a zoo than a mart for serious business. - -Cargo Declarations is a regular Mecca for Eetee traders from the -outlands. I saw both kinds of Martians, the cat-whiskered, man-like, -yellow city dwellers and their wilder, little, brown baboon-faced -cousins from the red upland deserts; pink-and-white Venusians -glistening like four-foot snails under the celloplast sheaths that kept -them from dehydrating in the dry Martian air; Callistans teetering like -scaly green sawhorses on their four stiff-jointed legs and walking -stick tails; wooly blue tree men from Titan and ponderous Europans -rolling on the little three-wheeled carts they used to carry their -barrel-bellied tonnage. - -"It's a smiley," I told them, holding the cage up so they could admire -the soulful little brute. "From Mimas, Saturn's first moon. His name is -Joey and he is very much for sale." - -Everybody wanted Joey, naturally. I'd have wanted him myself if I -hadn't learned from the Mimasan natives, who are as rare as smileys and -a damned sight less friendly, that chewing khiff roots would immunize -me against his hypnotic aura. That aura makes smileys remarkable -even among Eetees, so remarkable that nobody had ever brought one in -before. It's their mating call, a very practical gimmick evolved to -attract each other and at the same time protect themselves from native -predators while they carry on their courtship. It works on anything -from swamp gnats to Syrtis Major sand snakes, and it's literally -irresistible. - -Joey looked something like a fist-sized marmoset shaped out of -pale blue smoke, his body so insubstantial that you could see the -cage wires through and behind him. It was hard to put a finger on -the quality unless you had learned the hard way, but there was a -weird incompleteness about him that escaped definition. Smileys are -paradoxical little brutes. Unmated, they're only half material because -they actually aren't complete entities. But when they mate-- - -"Gleef?" Joey said plaintively, yearning at the assorted faces around -him and loving every one of them. - -That clinched it. "How much?" somebody asked, and there was a general -digging for wallets and Eetee equivalents. - -I had figured my price already, allowing for dealers' profits and -transferral expenses. On Earth Joey would be worth at least a hundred -thousand credits to psychomedic clinics treating mental disorders -ranging from simple hypertension to paranoia. He should net me twenty -thousand, ten of which would go to settle a grubstake lien held by -Martian Bankings against the _Annabelle_, my little eighty-foot space -tug. - -The other ten would leave me knee-deep in credit notes for a two week -spree that would begin at the Argonaut Club, which is as far as any -chunk-hopping asteroid prospector ever plans. - - * * * * * - -"First let me point out," I said, giving Joey's aura time to soak in -properly, "that Joey is the first smiley ever captured." - -Which was strictly true, though I didn't see fit to mention the second -one, a female named Cora which I had left hidden in an old abandoned -oxygen reduction plant I knew out in Syrtis Major. I had two good -reasons for that: they'd bring higher prices if sold separately, and I -wasn't taking any chances on their getting together before I disposed -of them. Anything could happen if they did. - -"Worth a hundred thousand on Earth," I said. "How much am I bid?" - -But nobody made me an offer. I might have known it. Some days you just -can't turn an honest credit. - -Joey's euphoric appeal should have had the traders scrambling for him, -but I had underestimated his effect. They wanted him, sure, but the -brotherly love he instilled in them made every buyer, Earth homo or -Eetee, ashamed to jack up the price against his neighbor. - -We compromised finally by listing Joey for proxy sale, and I took him -out of Cargo Declarations to clear the air. He would be safe in the -_Annabelle's_ cabin because no one who got close enough to steal him -would have the heart to do it, and I'd have time while the bids rolled -in to sample a pitcher or two of yellow Martian skohl down at the -Argonaut Club. - -Joey was safe enough, but I wasn't. I hadn't walked more than forty -yards from the _Annabelle_ after putting Joey away when I bumped into -Captain Giles of the spaceport police. - -"Wait up," the Captain said. "I'll warn you this time before it -happens, Bailey. If you start another riot at the Argonaut Club--" - -Captain Giles was a rail-thin six-footer with a dour hatchet face -burned to leather by Martian sun and wind, a hard-boiled but -conscientious patrol officer who had missed his calling. He should have -been a missionary, being as chaste as a Cosmicist monk and twice as -stern. - -I heard variations of his ultimatum every time I put down at Areopolis. -But this time I had the answer to it. - -"Will you step over to the _Annabelle_ with me, Captain?" I asked. "I'd -like your opinion on the cargo I brought in." - -He went, glowering and suspicious. Sixty feet from the _Annabelle_ we -walked into Joey's euphoric aura, and his grumbling was shut off as if -somebody had turned a spigot. - -"I don't understand this," the Captain said, giving me a saintly smile -that would have sent his hard-boiled crew into a mass faint. "But it's -really rather wonderful.... Let me beg you again, William, to shun that -disreputable Argonaut Club. Some day--" - -"I know," I finished for him. "Some day your patrolies will sweep me -out of there in small, unidentifiable fragments. A dirty job." - -I left him there with his bright new smile wearing strange creases in -his hard hatchet face and walked down from the landing apron to the -street. That was when I learned that I wasn't as safe as Joey. - -The instant I set foot in the street a couple of professional uglies -closed in on me, a sharp-faced Earth homo and a cat-whiskered yellow -Martie in bright Terran clothing. The two of them were armed with -bell-mouthed freeze guns, and they were bent on business. - -I never had a chance. They ushered me into a waiting sand-car and took -away the Quantrell blaster I wore buckled over my coveralls. - -"We hear you got a smiley for sale, chunk-hopper," the sharp homo said -while the Martie started the sand-car. "Well, we got you a buyer for -it." - -They didn't really need the car except for privacy. Our trip took us -only half a block down the street where we stepped out at the last -place I'd have expected to market a smiley--at the palatial office -building of Solar Shipping, a billion-credit corporation headed by one -Hume Shanig, space-line tycoon and crooked financier extraordinary. - - * * * * * - -I had heard plenty about Shanig, though I'd never done business with -him. He had a finger in every financial pie on Mars from import houses -to the Argonaut Club, which was directly across the street and which he -owned outright. Dealing with Shanig, rumor said, was like stepping into -a Venusian boghole--easier to get into than out of. - -Shanig's uglies chivvied me into a reception room that was all -skylights and soft rugs and shining saffa-wood furniture. A big desk -stood in the center. Behind the desk sat Shanig's secretary. - -It was almost worth being kidnapped to be able to stand and look at -her. She was a beauty, a tall clean-lined redhead with all the curves a -prodigal heredity ever promised a female of the species homo. And she -had a warm red mouth and clear green eyes that matched her hair. - -"Buzz the boss that we got his homo, Cheryl," the Earthie said. "And -snap it up, baby. The Chief is but eager about this smiley deal." - -The girl gave him a curt green glare. "Miss Trayne, to you," she -snapped. But she pushed the buzzer on her desk, and a rasping voice -from her audiphone said that we should come in. - -I knew only one of the three men in the office beyond. He was a little -blond truckler named Perry Acree who held a booking-clerk's berth -at Cargo Declarations, and I didn't need to look twice at the smug -complacence of his chicken-chinned face to guess who had tipped Shanig -about my smiley. - -The second was a fat, dignified homo with a clipped gray mustache and -the deliberate look of a top-flight medic. The third was Shanig himself. - -Physically, the great man had seen better days. He was small and old -and wizened and bald, and the creases in his sallow face could have -been carved with a kit of engraver's tools. His scrawny neck hung in -slack wattles, and the hooked nose and hot black eyes of him made him -look like a dissipated desert buzzard. But I wasn't tempted to sell -him short for even in illness Shanig had the air about him of a baited -steel trap. He was an empire builder, one of these human dynamos who -pile up fortunes and then die of gastric ulcers before they can spend -their loot. - -"I dislike bringing you here under duress, Bailey," Shanig said. He was -trying to make it smooth, but even so he barked like a Syrtis Major -jackal. "Dr. Humphrey will explain my reasons for being so precipitate." - -The medic harumphed reluctantly and fiddled with his mustache. Plainly -he didn't like any part of it. - -"Mr. Shanig," he said, "suffers from a chronic condition of extreme -nervous tension, a result of the years of overstrain imposed upon him -by his business enterprises. I have prescribed rest and relaxation, but -at this late date Mr. Shanig is constitutionally unable to pursue that -course. - -"He is, in a word, incapable of relaxing; yet relax he must or collapse -completely. Sedatives are unsatisfactory, impairing the mental -processes. Mr. Shanig does not trust hypnotherapy. - -"As a consequence we find ourselves with only one alternative--a happy -chance resulting from your arrival at Areopolis with this, ah, smiley." - -I got it then. At first glance it was a neat enough idea; the catch -was that Shanig didn't know his smileys. He couldn't put himself under -Joey's euphoric golden-rule spell and still direct a big business. - -And besides that I hadn't gone through the slimy hells of those Mimasan -jungles to rehabilitate a burned-out old credit-shark like Hume Shanig. -Joey belonged to humanity, to the poor overwrought hypertensive homos -who really needed him. - -"If you want my smiley to keep this old goat from snapping his leash," -I said, "the answer is no. Joey would quiet him down like a country -churchyard, sure, but--" - -Shanig cut me short by smacking a peremptory hand on his desk top. - -"That will be all, Dr. Humphrey," he barked. "Get out." - - * * * * * - -When the medic had gone Shanig turned on me. "I have no time to waste -in haggling, Bailey. How much do you ask for this creature?" - -I thought it over and it still read the same. - -More was at stake than the wasting of Joey's talents on a bad hat like -Shanig. There was the inevitable blowup that must come later. When -Shanig found out what being too long under a smiley's influence could -do to a homo with his financial responsibilities, there would be the -devil to pay for fair. - -"I don't want trouble," I said, trying to be diplomatic. "But I can't -sell Joey to you. If you'd let me explain--" - -"You have a commitment against your prospect ship, I believe," Shanig -cut in. "An obligation commonly referred to as a grubstake lien, is it -not?" - -"With Martian Bankings," I admitted. "It's a couple of weeks overdue -at the moment but Martian is a friendly outfit. They'll wait for their -credits until I sell the smiley." - -I couldn't be sure whether Shanig laughed or barked. - -"I anticipated your reluctance to sell so I purchased your lien from -Martian Bankings two hours ago. I know your reputed fondness for your -ship, and I understand too that a similar craft cannot be bought for -twice the amount of your financial obligation." - -He had me cold. It was a dirty trick of Martian's to sell me out, but I -could see how it was when Shanig put the screws to them. - -"You are in no position to bargain with me, you simple fool," Shanig -said, looking more than ever like a dissipated buzzard. "I shall make -you one offer before claiming forfeit--the cancellation of your debt -plus five thousand credits in cash." - -He shouldn't have baited me with the _Annabelle_. I love that rusty old -tub the way some homos love their women. And after being sandbagged -with Shanig's kind of persuasion I began to figure that selling Joey to -him was as neat a revenge as I could ask. He deserved it--plus. - -"All right," I said. "You've bought a smiley." - -Shanig thumbed his buzzer and the redhead came in from the reception -office with a legal-looking paper in her hand. She went straight to -Shanig's desk, walking in a way to make any homo's pulse beat out of -step, but when she passed Perry Acree the two of them exchanged a -swift, secret look of complete understanding that actually made me -flinch. - -Sometimes I think I'll never understand women. Here was this gorgeous -wench, five-feet-ten and built like a hermit's dream, and what did she -pick? An egregious little idiot who-- - -"Sign here," Shanig grunted. He fitted the paper onto a desk pad and -whipped it toward me along with a stylus. - -It was a simple enough contract release giving me full title to the -_Annabelle_ plus five thousand credits in exchange for uncontested -ownership to one male Mimasan smiley answering to the name of Joey. - -Something about the pad-and-stylus routine rang a warning bell at -the back of my mind but I was too mad to listen. I wrote "William X. -Bailey" in the proper blank and the deed was done. - -When Perry Acree and Shanig's hired homo signed as witnesses all of us -stood up but Shanig. - -"That's all," Shanig snapped, pushing a check for five thousand credits -at me. "Get out!" - -I took the check and went out, so mad I could feel my ears crisping. -Entering the reception room again, it didn't soothe my mangled ego any -to get a disdainful once-over from the redhead. - -"I'm taking a weekend off with this little item to see the sights," I -said, snapping the check. "Like to come along for the ride? There's a -little pleasure colony up on Phobos that's out of this universe, where -anything goes." - -"Not with you, you swamp-stained wolf," she snapped. When I waited, -grinning, she bit her lip and her eyes shot green sparks. "Beat it or -I'll buzz for Perry." - - - II - -I didn't mind the brush-off but the idea of her calling for Perry Acree -to toss me out fanned my slow burn to a blaze. - -"That seed-sized cipher?" I scoffed. "Why, for two centi-credits I'd--" - -Shanig's door opened and Perry came out. He added up the score in a -blink and jumped to the conclusion that I was waiting to settle with -him. - -"Now look, Bill," he began. "I couldn't help it if--" - -"That secret agent stunt of yours just cost me five thousand credits, -Acree," I said, cutting him short. "I think you're going to be as sorry -as Shanig before this is over." - -He lost the little color he had. "I don't want trouble with you, Mr. -Bailey! Cheryl, will you--" - -The girl pushed her buzzer. Her eyes dodged mine, and I could read her -mind like the back of a credit-note. She was making allowances for -Perry but it hurt to call for help. - -Shanig's office door opened again and his two uglies came out. Both of -them had freeze guns and the yellow Martie wore my Quantrell blaster -tucked into his belt, but it was plain that they didn't expect to need -them. - -"Hey, take it easy!" Perry wailed, not wanting any part of this. -"That's Blaster Bill Bailey you jerks are--" - -They closed in, disregarding him, and I cracked their heads together -hard enough to make their knees bend like rubber. Then I took back my -Quantrell and left them holding each other up like a pair of skohl -addicts. - -"You can phonovise me at the Argonaut Club if you change your mind -about that weekend on Phobos," I told the redhead. "But don't wait too -long or this will have gone the way of all credits." - -I tucked the check away and went out with Perry Acree trailing -apologetically at my heels. Shanig had sent him to bring back the -smiley it seemed, so I let him tag along. He left the _Annabelle_ with -Joey under his arm and that mesmerized Sunday-services look on his -face, and I strolled down to Martian Bankings with my check. - -It wasn't really a surprise to find that Shanig had stopped payment on -it. What did give me the devil of a turn, though, was realizing that he -must have double-dealt me about the _Annabelle_, too. If he wouldn't -honor a five-thousand-credit contract he'd certainly balk at giving up -a twenty-thousand-credit ship. - -I broke all sprint records back to the spaceyards and slammed the -_Annabelle's_ port practically in the faces of Captain Giles and a -squad of patrolies who had been sent by Shanig to secure his latest -acquisition. - -Giles and his crew were yelling blue murder when I cut in the -_Annabelle's_ jets. A moment later they were racing like mad to beat -the apron-flash of the blastoff. - -It was all my own fault, I told myself. I should have suspected that -desk-pad-and-stylus snare of Shanig's--he had slipped a telewriter -plate under my contract release, and when I signed it I signed another -paper, by remote control, in another office. A paper that surrendered -my smiley and also my equity in the _Annabelle_. - -All I had now was a worthless check and a ship spaced in defiance of -legal foreclosure. I'd be lucky, I figured, if I didn't owe Shanig a -few thousand credits into the bargain. - - * * * * * - -I didn't hit for open space, knowing that Captain Giles would have a -radar spotting-net out for me. Instead I swung the _Annabelle_ eastward -and whizzed over Syrtis Major toward the abandoned oxygen-reduction -plant where I had hidden Cora, my other smiley. I needed a hideout -while I figured out a campaign to clear myself, and there was a flimsy -old warehouse at the oxy-plant that would screen the _Annabelle_ nicely. - -I scouted the desert carefully before drifting in for landing, and saw -nothing but a great desolate ocean of gritty red sand. Back in the days -when Earth was just beginning to cool off that desert might have been a -landscape of sorts, but aeons of oxidation had changed all that. It was -nothing now but a waste of powdered iron rust, sifted fine by a million -winds and patterned by the feet of jackals. - -The old reduction plant huddled in a wide, shallow depression made in -years past by the scooping and hauling of sand to the converters. -It reminded me of the ghost towns I had read of as a kid, before -telemovies and stereo-spools replaced the old historical novels -carried over from the twentieth century. It was never haunted by -Indians and buffalo, but it had seen its share of jackals and sand -snakes, and the wild, little, brown baboon-faced Marties of the deserts -had smashed all its windows when the Earthies moved on. - -Not many reduction plants were needed on Mars any more. The first homos -to come had to wear atmosphere masks--a first-water paradox, because -the rusty red deserts were full of good oxygen locked up in simple -ferrous oxide form--but they soon changed that. When enough of them -had come they set up atom-powered reduction plants by the hundreds, -breaking the red sand back to its primal elements of iron and oxygen. - -They used the iron in their first cities and they let the oxygen go -free. Before the Big Jump there used to be arguments, I've heard, to -the effect that Earthies could never live permanently on Mars because -the air was too thin and oxygen-poor. But unlocking oxygen from the -sand solved half the problem, and the other half never existed. - -In the .38 gravity of Mars, any physical action requires only a -fraction more than one-third as much effort as it would require on -Earth. And only one-third as much oxygen is needed to sustain that -effort. - -So a hundred years after Earthmen abandoned the Syrtis Major plant, -I had a perfect place to lick my wounds in privacy. I berthed the -_Annabelle_ in the old warehouse, opened her up from bow to stern to -let out the stink of stale tobacco smoke and machine oil, and brought -my second smiley out of the dusty records vault where I had hidden her. - -Cora was as affectionate as Joey and twice as eager. She made an -earnest effort to hypnotize me with that euphoric mating call of hers, -but when the khiff root kept me immune she settled down to staring -wistfully across the desert toward Areopolis where Joey radiated back -at her. - -I broke out the emergency rations I lived on while prospecting the -asteroids or moon-hopping, and sat down to think. I had to clear myself -with Captain Giles or I'd never see Areopolis or the Argonaut Club -again. I had to break Shanig's claim against the _Annabelle_ or I'd be -an asteroid prospector without a ship. In other words, a bum. - -And besides that I'd have to settle with Shanig for the slimy trick he -had pulled on me or I'd be laughed out of the System. For some reason, -considering that angle reminded me again of the unlikely old romances -I'd read of the days when people rode horses and steam engines and -chivvied buffalo around with red-hot stamping irons. They prospected -for the rare earths--gold was a precious metal then, I think--and they -had to keep their reputations as he-men intact or go down before the -pellet guns of their fellow homos. - -It seemed to me that things hadn't changed so much, after all. I had -some small reputation of my own in the outlands, and if I let a wizened -little credit-shark like Shanig beat me I was done for. - -So I sat in front of the rickety old warehouse and munched my E-rations -and thought about those things until finally, being the honest type, I -had to admit that none of them mattered half as much as getting back -to Areopolis and making another pitch at a streamlined redhead with -scornful green eyes. There was still an outside chance that Cheryl -Trayne might have phonovised me at the Argonaut Bar about that weekend -on Phobos, and.... - -I was daydreaming about that when the shutter-speed sunset of Mars -flicked away the day and left me sitting in darkness with the Syrtis -Major wind sharp and cold on my face and the wild howling of desert -jackals in my ears. - - - III - -For three interminable days I sat around the old oxy-plant, eating -and sleeping and thinking, and the monotony of it got deadlier and -deadlier. I couldn't even switch on my communications equipment for the -news since Captain Giles and his lads might be making spot patrols, -and the localized radiation of my receiving unit would be enough to -pinpoint me. - -I had a fair idea of what went on with Shanig, though. No homo can -operate after his fashion without making enemies, and the bigger his -business the more powerful his enemies. Vigilance becomes the price -of existence, financially speaking, and it was on that point that I -figured Shanig had over-reached himself. - -All that was pure guesswork, of course, until the afternoon of the -third day. Then I had unexpected confirmation of it, brought by the -last person on Mars I dreamed of seeing. - -I was in the _Annabelle's_ cabin with Cora when the helicar settled -in front of my makeshift hangar. I came out on the double with my -Quantrell ready, and saw Cheryl Trayne standing in the warehouse -entrance. The sun, hanging low on the desert's rim, outlined her -tantalizingly against a blaze of light and made her hair a shimmering -halo of burnished copper. - -It was so wonderful to see her, but at the same time I was a little -disappointed. It had been a pleasant possibility that she might change -her mind about that Phobos trip, but to have her track me down like -this. - -"How did you find me?" I demanded. "And who's with you?" - -She gave me a child's trusting smile, a reversal of her old haughty -brush-off that gave me the devil of a jolt until I remembered Cora in -the _Annabelle's_ cabin. Cheryl was as deep under Cora's spell now as -she must have been under Joey's before-- - -"Never mind that," I said. "How did you get away from Shanig's smiley? -Is Shanig out of his trance, too?" - -She looked puzzled, as if she were trying to remember something -tremendously important. - -"I came alone," she said. "I traced you through Joey, after Mr. Shanig -sent Perry away with him. I remembered then how Joey always faced -toward the east when he was quiet. He used to crouch for hours in his -cage when no one was near him and stare in this direction. After he was -gone it came to me that he sensed another smiley somewhere was calling -to it. And if there was another smiley on Mars...." - -"Then I had brought it and I'd be with it," I finished for her. "Neat -enough. I only hope no one else thought of it." - -She gave me that trusting smile again, and my conscience dealt me a -sharp nudge. I went over and gave her a khiff root. - -"Chew it," I said. "Never mind the taste. It'll make you as good as -new." - -She took it obediently, and a couple of minutes later something like -horror chased the contentment out of her face. She stared at me, her -green eyes turning angry. - -"You must have enjoyed seeing me like that," she said acidly. "It never -occurred to me that I'd fall under the other smiley's influence if I -found you or I'd never have--" - -"You'd never have dared come at all," I said. "You'd have been afraid -I'd bring up that Phobos jaunt again, and you couldn't have said no -with Cora around." - -She bit her lip in the way she had, and I could see her admitting -reluctantly that she might just possibly have misjudged me. - -"All right, you found me," I said. "Now give. What happened? How did -Shanig get rid of Joey and why did you hunt me down if you're still -nursing a phobia against Phobos?" - - * * * * * - -"Shanig's underofficials at Solar Shipping rescued him," she said. -"They couldn't reach him at first because everyone they sent fell under -the smiley's influence. But they had to do something. Shanig was like -an irresponsible child, giving away company holdings as well as his -own. They were so frantic that--" - -"I tried to warn him," I pointed out. "He turned cherub the instant -Perry arrived with Joey, didn't he? Word of it got around in nothing -flat and his competitors, his enemies, starting phonovising him right -and left. They must have stood in line at the telewrite stations to -take his holdings and Solar's. A couple of days of that must have -practically ruined him and Solar Shipping as well. How did they snap -him out of it?" - -"They phonovised him to step out on his window balcony. When he came -out to the rail they knocked him off with a freeze gun and caught him -with a net in the street below. He almost went mad when he realized -what he had done." - -I grinned for two reasons. I had been right and Shanig had lost his -shirt. It served him right. - -"So Shanig is starting from scratch again. What line is he taking?" - -For the first time she looked scared. - -"A line you didn't anticipate. Solar's stockholders have ordered him -to recover what he gave away, and he's taking no chances on losing what -personal holdings he has left. He tried to eliminate Perry and me the -minute he snapped back to normal, and he'll have you erased as soon as -you're taken." - -I stared at her. "That's going pretty far, even for Shanig. Why should -he beam us out?" - -She gave me an exasperated look. "Because he's afraid you might force -Perry and me to swear that he tricked you on your contract release. -It didn't matter before when he was powerful enough to smother the -charge, but he's been so hard hit that he can't risk a reversal of that -contract now. Don't you see? If you brought suit for reparations and -won it would ruin him. The only way Shanig can make himself safe is to -eliminate you as claimant or to get rid of Perry and me as witnesses." - -It was a deadly sort of logic. I had expected Shanig to yell foul but I -hadn't looked for a planet-wide homo hunt with myself as the quarry. - -"It's up to us, then," I said. "We'll have to settle Shanig first or -he'll get us as sure as sin." - -She didn't look so frightened now as embarrassed. - -"That's why I came to you. We can keep out of Shanig's way, perhaps, -but poor Perry is trapped. Someone will have to get him out of that -horrible place before Shanig reaches him." - -I gaped a little over that one. "What horrible place? Where is Perry?" - -"At the Argonaut Club," she said. "As soon as Shanig was himself again -he photovised Perry and ordered him to take the smiley there, partly to -get Joey away and partly to cut down breakage expense at the Argonaut. -Perry's been there all day, associating with Eetee outlanders and -drinking skohl like any common spacehand. He'll drink himself to death -before Shanig finds a way to get to him, if we don't hurry." - -I laughed until my face hurt. I couldn't help it. The idea of Perry -Acree drinking himself blind in the Argonaut's rowdy company was too -much. Thinking about the prayer-meeting hush that Joey must be laying -over the toughest shot-slot in the System made it all the funnier -until the real reason for Cheryl's hunting me down percolated through -my skull and sobered me up. - -Her motive was enlightening, but not flattering. - - * * * * * - -"So that's why you risked your luscious hide to find me," I said. "To -talk me into dragging that idiot dwarf out of the Argonaut. Am I right?" - -She looked hopping mad and pleading at the same time, which is quite a -trick even for a redhead. - -"You can do it if anyone can. I checked on your background this -morning, and it seems that--well, that you may not be the windbag I -thought you after all. One asteroid prospector told me that you--" - -"Never believe a chunk-hopper," I told her. "They lie for fun or on -principle, depending on the circumstances. But I'm not interested in -Perry Acree. If he hadn't tipped Shanig to my smiley none of this would -have happened. The _Annabelle_ would be clear of debt and I'd be in the -Argonaut instead of Perry. Why should I risk my neck for that simpering -sycophant?" - -She had trouble telling me why. Having to ask my help burned her -plenty, and its being Perry's fault made it worse. She turned pink and -talked in circles, not meeting my eye, and when I finally guessed how -she had meant to persuade me you could have clubbed me down with a sand -thistle. - -"You really _are_ sold on that puling parasite," I said. "Look, are you -sure he's worth a weekend on Phobos?" - -"Beast!" she cried, and slapped my face. - -"Good enough," I said when my ears stopped ringing. "Faint heart never -haggled with fair hell-cat. Let's go rescue your skohl-swilling light -of love." - -I moved Cora's little tungsten cage into the helicar and Cheryl took -us up. We didn't have to wait for darkness. The split-second Martian -twilight took care of that in the wink of an eye. - -The two-hour flight was almost pleasant. The stars over our speeding -helicar glittered down like far, frosty eyes and the gritty red ocean -of desert under us lost its harshness and took on a magic pattern of -soft, shifting shadows. Phobos paced us across the black night sky like -a swift silver morning-star, and the little gray jackals crept out -of their dens and howled at her with all the pent-up loneliness of a -million, million years. - -Cheryl shivered at their keening, and the thought that she could be as -skittish as other women gave me a little jolt of surprise. - -"Mournful little beggars, aren't they?" I said. "I wonder what they'd -think of Earth, with its big yellow moon all night in the sky?" - -Cheryl didn't answer, but it seemed to me that she thawed out a little. -It was almost cozy in the helicar after that until the dusty neon haze -of Areopolis ballooned up out of the desert. - - - IV - -We came in low to avoid any radar net the port patrol might have up, -and entered the sleeping city above the shadowy warrens of the native -district. - -"You'll have to be careful," Cheryl warned. "And quick. Shanig's men -will be watching the Argonaut, and the police won't have forgotten you -so soon." - -"I'll be careful," I said, knowing better than she the sort of odds -Shanig would favor. "The next question is where do I find you after I -drag that case of arrested development out of there?" - -She gave me an address. "I took a room there as soon as I realized that -Shanig was after me. I doubt that he's been able to trace me so soon." - -We dipped into an apartment house section and Cheryl set the helicar -down in a night-quiet street. "Apartment Six-A," she said. And then, -unexpectedly: "Take care of yourself, Bill, please. Don't do anything -rash!" - -I patted her shoulder reassuringly. "You may have to rescue _me_ before -the night is over," I told her. "Stand by your phonovision and be ready -to bring Cora in a hurry if I call you. I can't risk taking her into -the Argonaut because of Joey, but I may need her if I run afoul of -Shanig. Got it?" - -She nodded and gave me her phonovision code. I got out of there and -headed down the street while she took the helicar up to her apartment -house roof landing. - -It wasn't far. Fifteen minutes of fast walking through the back -streets brought me up a dark alley to the Argonaut's side entrance. -The service door was locked, of course, and as a consequence none of -Shanig's uglies were guarding it. - -I kicked it in and went through a dusty corridor into the smoky, -skohl-pungent bar-room. - -The instant I was inside I knew that Cheryl had been right. Joey -was there, and he was radiating for all he was worth. There was the -spellbound crowd for proof of that. - -The Argonaut Club was known the breadth of the System as the toughest -dive that ever sold a drunken rockethand a pitcher of drugged skohl. I -wound up there every time I touched Mars, and I knew the dump down to -the latest ray-burn on its dingy plastoid walls. You hit some pretty -rowdy shot-slots in the other spaceports, but the Argonaut topped them -all. The Argonaut was rough. - -Ordinarily. Tonight it looked like a missionary's picnic. - -At the bar, Earthies sporting two-week passage beards and Quantrell -blasters bucked over grimy rocketroom coveralls, rubbed elbows -with cat-whiskered yellow city Martians and their vicious little -baboon-faced cousins from the deserts. Woolly blue tree men from Titan -drank with squishy Venusians and tentacled Ionians. I saw a couple of -Callistans in a corner, braced saw-horse-fashion on their jointless -legs and sticklike tails, grinning happily while they fraternized with -a pair of ponderous Europans. The Europans, coy as two honeymooning -hippos under Joey's spell, blubbered amiably back and rolled in small -polite circles on their little three-wheeled carts. - -Even the bouncer was happy. - -This last was an Earthie, a big, battered homo named Husky Harrigan who -tipped the scales at two-fifty Earthweight and looked like a tuskless -Mercurian sandhog, bristles and all. I had run into difficulties with -him before. He had the disposition of a thwarted ape, wore brass -knuckles the way other men wore finger rings, and was the prime reason -for the Argonaut's tough reputation. - -But tonight Harrigan was as gentle as a dove, circulating through the -crowd and shaking hands with anything that had a hand to shake. - -I spotted Perry Acree at once. He was sitting at a table with two -Earthies and a spiny pink Ganymedan, drinking skohl straight from -the pitcher and staring soulfully at nothing in particular. I made a -bee-line for his table but brought up short when I heard Husky Harrigan -roaring my name. - -Force of habit made me set myself for trouble, but under Joey's spell, -Harrigan was everybody's friend, even mine. He put out a hairy paw -and grinned like a crocodile, whinnying with joy and showing a set of -second-rate bridgework where somebody had kicked out a handful of teeth. - -"Hey, kids, it's Blaster Bill Bailey!" he bellowed. "C'mon and have -fun, Willie. First drink on the house!" - -I nearly clipped him for that "Willie" crack before I thought. Not -that I had scruples about clouting an oaf like Harrigan when he was in -no position to strike back. I just couldn't afford the delay. Captain -Giles' patrolies might be along any minute. And there was always Shanig. - - * * * * * - -So I pushed past Harrigan and yanked Perry to his feet. - -"Cheryl's waiting for you, Stupid," I said. "Snap to it, before I write -you off and keep the date myself." - -He grinned vacuously and came along like a lamb. - -The two patrolies looked in through the swinging doors up front when -Perry and I were halfway to the service corridor. Their sunburned faces -lighted up when they saw me, and they shoved the doors wider to command -the room with their bell-mouthed freeze guns. Behind them on the street -stood their tandem air-scooter, lights on and motor purring. - -"You're under arrest, Bailey," one of them called. He was a corporal, -and it was written all over him that he saw a sergeant's rating coming -for this night's work. "Come out of that!" - -I got a firmer grip on Perry's collar. - -"Come and get me," I called back, knowing what would happen if they did. - -They came in on the double with their freeze guns ready--and halted, -looking sheepish, when the smiley's aura got to them. - -"Aw, forget it," the corporal said. "You're a good guy, Bailey. Go -ahead. Go anywhere you like." - -"Sure," the other seconded. "Take our air-scooter if you want. Need any -extra credits where you're going?" - -I headed for the service with Perry again but we had waited too long. -One of Shanig's uglies was standing in the doorway with a foolish grin -on his face, and I knew there would be others waiting in the alley -outside. And those others wouldn't be under Joey's influence. - -So I cut for the front entrance instead, dragging Perry like a bag of -old laundry. The patrolies' air-scooter stood purring at the curb. I -draped Perry across it and jumped for the operator's seat, expecting to -be beamed down any second. I'd have made it, too, but for Perry. - -Perry had taken on a monumental load of skohl during the day, and the -instant he was out of Joey's influence the inflated little ego of him -demanded to be heard. He scrambled off the air-scooter, swelled out his -size thirty-two chest and launched into an old rocketroom ballad--a -smutty saga listing the personal iniquities of the Captain Crow who led -the first Mars flight just before the turn of the century. - - In nineteen hundred and ninety-two - A _homo_ from Milwaukee - Warmed up his jets and-- - -I quieted him with a rabbit punch and tossed him back on the -air-scooter, but the damage was done. I hit the control seat again just -as Shanig's crew swarmed out of the alley and surrounded us. - -The air-scooter took off like a rocket when I gave it the gun, plowing -straight through them. I hung on somehow, but Perry wasn't so lucky. He -bounced once and pitched off, square into the enemy's hands. - -When I looked back at the first street intersection they had scooped -him up and were headed toward Solar Shipping in a hurry. The sight -reassured me a little. They hadn't blasted Perry on the spot, which -meant that they would probably hold him as hostage until they got -Cheryl as well. One witness at large was as dangerous to Shanig as two, -and the chances were he wouldn't risk beaming out one unless he could -be sure of both. - -I took the only course left, doubling the air-scooter back and skimming -toward Shanig's offices. - - - V - -The way the situation added up reminded me of the old historical -thrillers I'd read as a kid, most of them written in the days when our -rough-and-ready ancestors bought contraband skohl from underground -talk-gentlies and rival groups of uglies hijinked each other with -torpedoes. It was something like a present-day telemovie gripper in a -sense, only there wasn't any Colonel Super in this plot to lend me a -hand. - -Not that I wasted time looking for help. I wasn't used to it. - -Outside the Solar Shipping building I lifted the air-scooter and -swooped up to the balcony outside Shanig's office windows. There wasn't -time to set it down. I needed every second to get inside before Shanig -could give the alarm. - -I jumped, and the air-scooter went on without me into the night. It -wouldn't have worked on Earth, but under Mars' .38 gravity an athletic -homo has all the breaks. I landed just inside the guard-rail and dived -through the balcony windows with a great crashing of glass before -Shanig could clap a hand to the buzzer on his desk. - -"Don't touch it," I said, and turned my Quantrell on him. - -"You!" Shanig barked. His face went sallower than ever, but his hot -black eyes didn't waver. "What do you want here?" - -Down the corridor rose a sudden babel of voices--Shanig's crew -returning with their prize. - -"They got Acree," I said, heading for the phonovision unit beside -Shanig's desk. "But if you make a sound before they get here you won't -be able to use him. Clear?" - -The screen lit up when I touched the switch. I punched the code Cheryl -had given me, and drew the first deep breath I'd had for an hour when -she looked out at me. - -"Bring Cora over to Shanig's office on the double," I said. "I'm going -to need her but quick!" - -I cut her off without waiting for an answer and punched another number. -Captain Giles stared out at me this time, his weathered hatched face -clownish with astonishment. - -"Get a crew of patrolies up to Shanig's offices," I said. "And make it -fast or there's going to be more excitement here than you can write off -your records in a month." - -For the first time Shanig looked worried. He saw no threat in Cheryl's -coming, not knowing about my second smiley. But if Captain Giles should -arrive before Perry could be moved-- - -The crew of uglies outside crossed me up by buzzing Shanig's audiphone. -"We got the little homo, Chief. Shall we bring him in?" - -Shanig, knowing that I couldn't afford to beam him at this stage of the -game, tipped them before I could stop him. "Take him away. Bailey's -here!" - -I jumped for the door, hoping to grab Perry before they got him away. I -was too late. They were already out of the reception office. All I saw -of Perry Acree was his heels. - -That left us at stalemate. Shanig couldn't get away, and I couldn't -leave him unguarded to go after Perry. I was racking my brain for the -next move when it was taken out of my hands. - -The phonovision screen beside Shanig's desk lighted up and one of his -uglies looked out. "We got him where he won't be found, Chief. What -next?" - -And I let Shanig beat me to the jump again. "The girl is coming here. -Intercept her!" - -I made sure it wouldn't happen again by raying the phonovision unit to -a heap of smoking junk. Reflected heat from the flash curled Shanig's -eyebrows, but he didn't flinch. - -"That finishes you, Bailey," he said. "My men have Acree safe. They'll -have the girl the instant she appears. Under the circumstances it -should be quite entertaining to watch you prove your position to the -police." - -He had me cold. Shanig could afford to wait but I couldn't. - - * * * * * - -It turned out that Shanig's handymen didn't share his confidence in the -police. I heard them getting set in the reception-room corridor to -block any dash I might make. When I sneaked a look through the balcony -windows I caught a glimpse of another group working like beavers in the -building across the alley. They were setting up a tripod affair which I -recognized at a glance as a sleep-bomb catapult. - -They had it charged to fire when Captain Giles and his patrolies -arrived. A babble of confusion rose in the corridor again, and the -Captain's harsh bellow silenced it like a hand across the mouth. A -moment later he called through the doorway: "Stand fast, Bailey. We're -coming in, and God help you if you give us trouble!" - -I stood fast, giving up any hope of Cheryl's showing up in time. Having -Cora along should make it easy enough for her to get into the building, -but even Cora couldn't help if Captain Giles had already dragged me -away. - -Giles came around Shanig's desk toward me, his hatchet face thunderous. -"I've warned you often enough, Bailey. This time you've gone too far." - -Shanig treated himself to one of his sandpaper chuckles. "He'll -probably give you some wild story designed to clear himself, Captain. -Don't believe a word of it. I trusted him, and you can see what it led -to!" - -The Captain was taking my Quantrell blaster when my reprieve came. One -of Shanig's uglies burst into the office with disaster written all over -him. - -"Chief, the girl's coming up in the lift with another smiley! The whole -lower floor is hypnotized. She'd have got me too if the lift hadn't -carried me out of reach!" - -I'll give Shanig credit for this--he thought fast. He added up the -score in a flash and lunged across the desk, yelling for his startled -uglies to follow up. If Cheryl got to us with the smiley the jig was -up, and he knew it. - -He ripped the Quantrell blaster out of Captain Giles' hand and turned -it on us. He meant to wipe out the lot and clear himself by laying the -carnage to a battle between me and the patrol. - -It was close, but not close enough. - -A sudden serenity wiped the tension off his face like chalk marks off -a blackboard. Captain Giles and his patrolies slacked off with him, -caught in the same euphoric spell. - -They stood smiling and docile while Cheryl Trayne strode in with Cora's -little tungsten cage under her arm. If she had looked good to me -before, right then she looked like a red-haired angel. - -"Good girl," I said, and took over from there. - -Shanig confessed on the spot to the slimy deal he had pulled over me, -and signed a statement to that effect. He got on the reception-room -phonovision and ordered his crew in the adjoining building to drop -everything and return Perry Acree at once. He destroyed the bogus -contract and took back the elastic check he had given me, and he -enjoyed doing it. Cora, sensing Joey so close in the Argonaut Bar -across the street, was working her mating call overtime. - -"It was really inconsiderate of you to swindle our young friend -William," the Captain said to Shanig. "Of course you won't object to -serving a light sentence--say five years--to make amends?" - -"Certainly not," Shanig said brightly, beaming back at him. "My only -regret is that I must be separated from this adorable creature. I love -smileys." - -He went over to the desk where Cheryl had left Cora's cage and fondled -the little brute through the wires. He played the very devil in doing -it, too. Somehow or other the cage door had worked loose during the -time it had been banged about, and Shanig's fumbling hands slid it open. - -Cora was out of the cage and through the broken balcony windows in a -smoky bluish flash, whizzing like a bullet toward the Argonaut Club and -Joey. - - - VI - -Everybody snapped back to normal with a roar. There was a frantic rush -of Shanig's uglies trying to escape and of Giles' patrolies collaring -them again. I took no chances with Shanig. I turned my Quantrell on him -and held him fast. - -Hell broke loose in the Argonaut then. Even before the confusion -quieted in Shanig's office we could hear the din that went up across -the street. - -From our balcony windows we had a grandstand view of the Argonaut's -more timid patrons exploding out of the place and tearing down the -street, wobbling and lurching each in his own outlandish fashion from -the assortment of Eetee drinks they had taken aboard under Joey's -spell. The rougher souls left inside had begun a battle royal that -raised a bedlam wilder than a robot rooting section at a rocket-games -stadium. - -"What is it!" Captain Giles yelled, goggling at a barrel-bellied -Europan who shot out of the Argonaut with a pack of little baboon-faced -Marties harrying its speeding cart from the rear. "What have you done -now?" - -"Shanig has just ruined a forty-thousand-credit investment for -me," I told him, "by letting my pair of smileys get together. That -peace-be-on-you feeling they've been broadcasting is a thing of the -past. They feel just the opposite now, and so will anyone who goes near -them." - -I had to explain it twice before they got it. - -Mimasan smileys, as I've said before, are weird little brutes. Unmated, -their euphoric mating calls attract them to each other and at the same -time protects them from native predators. The catch is that when they -mate they coalesce, each complementing the insubstantiality of the -other to become a single material entity. - -And then, of course, there's no further need of their wistful, coaxing -aura. - -After that they hate everybody, being newlyweds and not wanting to be -disturbed, so of course they radiate an exactly opposite aura that -guarantees them the privacy their joint little heart craves. Nothing -can come near enough to interrupt them without becoming so rabidly -angry that it has to rush off somewhere else looking for something to -fight. But you see how it goes. - -"And from the row going on in the Argonaut," I finished, "I'd say that -Joey and Cora are definitely on their honeymoon." - -"You mean they'll be like that always?" Cheryl asked, wide-eyed. "That -no one can go near them without flying into a rage?" - -"Not always," I said glumly. "Just for five years. After that they -divide by fission into a dozen or so baby smileys, and after that the -rat-race starts over again. The progeny will be worth plenty, but who's -going to stand guard over that amalgamated little demon while it -broadcasts hate and damnation in every direction? I won't, and there's -not a homo in the System that would take the job for love or--" - -The answer hit me like a thumb in the eye, bang in the middle of a -sentence. - -"Captain Giles," I said. "I've a suggestion that...." - -The Captain got it on first bounce. For the first time in history he -laughed without benefit of smiley. - -It worked out neatly enough, at that. An Areopolitan court decreed -that Shanig, being bound by the requirements of Martian law to expiate -his crimes with as little expense to the polity as possible, should -spend the five years of his sentence guarding Joey-Cora in a force-wall -detention area to be set up in Syrtis Major. By the time his term ended -my combination smiley would have fissioned, Shanig would have paid his -debt to society and my investment would have paid dividends. - -It could have been worse. For the time being I was out some forty -thousand credits, but I managed to salvage enough for a moderate -celebration by contracting with the government to furnish _khiff_ -roots from Mimas to keep Shanig from going berserk under Joey-Cora's -influence. - -The arrangement wasn't too hard on Shanig, even. The worst of it would -be the isolation--that, and the packs of Syrtis Major jackals that -would crowd around the force-wall at night and howl for his blood. - - * * * * * - -"Good enough," I told Cheryl after the trial. "That leaves just one -small detail to be arranged. I'll have to wangle another loan from -Martian Bankings." - -She raised a slim brow. "Loan? For a grubstake?" - -"For our weekend on Phobos," I said. "Remember?" - -She laughed. "There's another little detail you overlooked, William. My -ring size is five and one-half." - -"Ring?" I said. "Oh, a ring.... Would you rather have a Tellurian -diamond, an A-belt fire-opal, or--" - -"Nothing expensive," she cut me off. "Something simpler would be more -appropriate, I think. Under the circumstances, I'd suggest a plain -gold band." - -I gaped at her like a swamp-guppy until it seeped through my skull that -she was in dead earnest. - -"Wait up," I said. "What about Perry Acree?" - -She snapped her fingers. "_That_ for Perry. I thought I wanted the -little creep until you brought him back, but after that I couldn't bear -the sight of him." - -"You mean," I said, grasping at any straw, "that you really want to -be--" - -"Married," she said definitely. "First and firmly, or no Phobos trips!" - -"It wouldn't last," I argued. "Being an A-belt prospector's wife is no -snap, Cheryl. I'd be out in the _Annabelle_ for weeks on end, slamming -around in God knows what kind of dangers. And one of these days I -wouldn't come back at all and you'd be a widow." - -"_You_ wouldn't be slamming around," she corrected me softly. "_We_ -would, Willie dear. I'd be with you every minute." - -That did it. It was "Willie dear" already, and she'd be with me every -minute. Even in port.... - -"I'll have to give this some serious thought," I said. "Look, you -wouldn't want us to plunge into a deal that wouldn't work out, would -you?" - -"Of course not," she said with a demure certainty that made my blood -curdle. "But this will work, Willie darling. I'll see to that." - -I got out of there and went down to Martian Bankings in the devil of -a hurry. They were apologetic over selling my grubstake lien, and -were glad to advance me a few thousand credits against Joey-Cora's -expectations. - -For once I passed the Argonaut Club without even looking back. A homo -with a skinful of skohl is short on resistance, and resistance just -then was what I needed most. - -When I reached the blastoff aprons, the _Annabelle's_ rusty old hulk -was the sweetest sight I ever saw. I pointed her lovely, meteor-dented -nose at the sky and blasted off, and the howling of her jets was like -a lullaby in my ears. The starry backdrop of space ahead was like a -cosmos-sized painting of all Creation, a master canvas done. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OH MESMERIST FROM MIMAS! *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where - you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that: - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without -widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/64641-0.zip b/old/64641-0.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 790fcb1..0000000 --- a/old/64641-0.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64641-h.zip b/old/64641-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index dd12329..0000000 --- a/old/64641-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64641-h/64641-h.htm b/old/64641-h/64641-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index bca76b0..0000000 --- a/old/64641-h/64641-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1779 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Oh Mesmerist from Mimas!, by Roger Dee. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.poetry .stanza -{ - margin: 1em auto; -} - -.poetry .verse -{ - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Oh Mesmerist From Mimas!, by Roger Dee</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Oh Mesmerist From Mimas!</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Roger Dee</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 26, 2021 [eBook #64641]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OH MESMERIST FROM MIMAS! ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Oh Mesmerist from Mimas!</h1> - -<h2>By ROGER DEE</h2> - -<p><i>This gloriously gay smiley character; this<br /> -astounding peace-pervading creature from Saturn's<br /> -inner moon, was radiating like a space beacon<br /> -in a meteor shower when it landed on Mars ...<br /> -it was madness ... gargantuan madness.</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories January 1953.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The Cargo Declarations mart at Areopolis spaceport was humming busily -when I walked in. A moment later it was as quiet as a church and twice -as attentive.</p> - -<p>The sudden hush that fell wasn't out of deference to me, though I'm -pretty well known through the odd corners of the Solar System, but -because of the Mimasan smiley I carried in a ten-inch tungsten wire -cage under my arm. Nothing this side of Saturn's inner moon can lay -down the euphoric aura of peace and brotherhood that a smiley can, and -this one was doing a noble job of it. He was one of the first two ever -to hit Mars, young and healthy and still unmated, and he was radiating -like a space beacon in a meteor shower.</p> - -<p>"Hey, it's Blaster Bill Bailey," I heard a trader—an Earthside homo by -the sound of him—say. "What's the beautiful little item you brought -back this time, Bill?"</p> - -<p>They crowded around me, Earthies and Eetees—Extraterrestrials—alike, -all trying to get closer to that lovely peace-be-on-you euphoria. I -looked them over carefully, counting the house and estimating their -probable bids, and for the hundredth time it struck me that the place -was more like a zoo than a mart for serious business.</p> - -<p>Cargo Declarations is a regular Mecca for Eetee traders from the -outlands. I saw both kinds of Martians, the cat-whiskered, man-like, -yellow city dwellers and their wilder, little, brown baboon-faced -cousins from the red upland deserts; pink-and-white Venusians -glistening like four-foot snails under the celloplast sheaths that kept -them from dehydrating in the dry Martian air; Callistans teetering like -scaly green sawhorses on their four stiff-jointed legs and walking -stick tails; wooly blue tree men from Titan and ponderous Europans -rolling on the little three-wheeled carts they used to carry their -barrel-bellied tonnage.</p> - -<p>"It's a smiley," I told them, holding the cage up so they could admire -the soulful little brute. "From Mimas, Saturn's first moon. His name is -Joey and he is very much for sale."</p> - -<p>Everybody wanted Joey, naturally. I'd have wanted him myself if I -hadn't learned from the Mimasan natives, who are as rare as smileys and -a damned sight less friendly, that chewing khiff roots would immunize -me against his hypnotic aura. That aura makes smileys remarkable -even among Eetees, so remarkable that nobody had ever brought one in -before. It's their mating call, a very practical gimmick evolved to -attract each other and at the same time protect themselves from native -predators while they carry on their courtship. It works on anything -from swamp gnats to Syrtis Major sand snakes, and it's literally -irresistible.</p> - -<p>Joey looked something like a fist-sized marmoset shaped out of -pale blue smoke, his body so insubstantial that you could see the -cage wires through and behind him. It was hard to put a finger on -the quality unless you had learned the hard way, but there was a -weird incompleteness about him that escaped definition. Smileys are -paradoxical little brutes. Unmated, they're only half material because -they actually aren't complete entities. But when they mate—</p> - -<p>"Gleef?" Joey said plaintively, yearning at the assorted faces around -him and loving every one of them.</p> - -<p>That clinched it. "How much?" somebody asked, and there was a general -digging for wallets and Eetee equivalents.</p> - -<p>I had figured my price already, allowing for dealers' profits and -transferral expenses. On Earth Joey would be worth at least a hundred -thousand credits to psychomedic clinics treating mental disorders -ranging from simple hypertension to paranoia. He should net me twenty -thousand, ten of which would go to settle a grubstake lien held by -Martian Bankings against the <i>Annabelle</i>, my little eighty-foot space -tug.</p> - -<p>The other ten would leave me knee-deep in credit notes for a two week -spree that would begin at the Argonaut Club, which is as far as any -chunk-hopping asteroid prospector ever plans.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"First let me point out," I said, giving Joey's aura time to soak in -properly, "that Joey is the first smiley ever captured."</p> - -<p>Which was strictly true, though I didn't see fit to mention the second -one, a female named Cora which I had left hidden in an old abandoned -oxygen reduction plant I knew out in Syrtis Major. I had two good -reasons for that: they'd bring higher prices if sold separately, and I -wasn't taking any chances on their getting together before I disposed -of them. Anything could happen if they did.</p> - -<p>"Worth a hundred thousand on Earth," I said. "How much am I bid?"</p> - -<p>But nobody made me an offer. I might have known it. Some days you just -can't turn an honest credit.</p> - -<p>Joey's euphoric appeal should have had the traders scrambling for him, -but I had underestimated his effect. They wanted him, sure, but the -brotherly love he instilled in them made every buyer, Earth homo or -Eetee, ashamed to jack up the price against his neighbor.</p> - -<p>We compromised finally by listing Joey for proxy sale, and I took him -out of Cargo Declarations to clear the air. He would be safe in the -<i>Annabelle's</i> cabin because no one who got close enough to steal him -would have the heart to do it, and I'd have time while the bids rolled -in to sample a pitcher or two of yellow Martian skohl down at the -Argonaut Club.</p> - -<p>Joey was safe enough, but I wasn't. I hadn't walked more than forty -yards from the <i>Annabelle</i> after putting Joey away when I bumped into -Captain Giles of the spaceport police.</p> - -<p>"Wait up," the Captain said. "I'll warn you this time before it -happens, Bailey. If you start another riot at the Argonaut Club—"</p> - -<p>Captain Giles was a rail-thin six-footer with a dour hatchet face -burned to leather by Martian sun and wind, a hard-boiled but -conscientious patrol officer who had missed his calling. He should have -been a missionary, being as chaste as a Cosmicist monk and twice as -stern.</p> - -<p>I heard variations of his ultimatum every time I put down at Areopolis. -But this time I had the answer to it.</p> - -<p>"Will you step over to the <i>Annabelle</i> with me, Captain?" I asked. "I'd -like your opinion on the cargo I brought in."</p> - -<p>He went, glowering and suspicious. Sixty feet from the <i>Annabelle</i> we -walked into Joey's euphoric aura, and his grumbling was shut off as if -somebody had turned a spigot.</p> - -<p>"I don't understand this," the Captain said, giving me a saintly smile -that would have sent his hard-boiled crew into a mass faint. "But it's -really rather wonderful.... Let me beg you again, William, to shun that -disreputable Argonaut Club. Some day—"</p> - -<p>"I know," I finished for him. "Some day your patrolies will sweep me -out of there in small, unidentifiable fragments. A dirty job."</p> - -<p>I left him there with his bright new smile wearing strange creases in -his hard hatchet face and walked down from the landing apron to the -street. That was when I learned that I wasn't as safe as Joey.</p> - -<p>The instant I set foot in the street a couple of professional uglies -closed in on me, a sharp-faced Earth homo and a cat-whiskered yellow -Martie in bright Terran clothing. The two of them were armed with -bell-mouthed freeze guns, and they were bent on business.</p> - -<p>I never had a chance. They ushered me into a waiting sand-car and took -away the Quantrell blaster I wore buckled over my coveralls.</p> - -<p>"We hear you got a smiley for sale, chunk-hopper," the sharp homo said -while the Martie started the sand-car. "Well, we got you a buyer for -it."</p> - -<p>They didn't really need the car except for privacy. Our trip took us -only half a block down the street where we stepped out at the last -place I'd have expected to market a smiley—at the palatial office -building of Solar Shipping, a billion-credit corporation headed by one -Hume Shanig, space-line tycoon and crooked financier extraordinary.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I had heard plenty about Shanig, though I'd never done business with -him. He had a finger in every financial pie on Mars from import houses -to the Argonaut Club, which was directly across the street and which he -owned outright. Dealing with Shanig, rumor said, was like stepping into -a Venusian boghole—easier to get into than out of.</p> - -<p>Shanig's uglies chivvied me into a reception room that was all -skylights and soft rugs and shining saffa-wood furniture. A big desk -stood in the center. Behind the desk sat Shanig's secretary.</p> - -<p>It was almost worth being kidnapped to be able to stand and look at -her. She was a beauty, a tall clean-lined redhead with all the curves a -prodigal heredity ever promised a female of the species homo. And she -had a warm red mouth and clear green eyes that matched her hair.</p> - -<p>"Buzz the boss that we got his homo, Cheryl," the Earthie said. "And -snap it up, baby. The Chief is but eager about this smiley deal."</p> - -<p>The girl gave him a curt green glare. "Miss Trayne, to you," she -snapped. But she pushed the buzzer on her desk, and a rasping voice -from her audiphone said that we should come in.</p> - -<p>I knew only one of the three men in the office beyond. He was a little -blond truckler named Perry Acree who held a booking-clerk's berth -at Cargo Declarations, and I didn't need to look twice at the smug -complacence of his chicken-chinned face to guess who had tipped Shanig -about my smiley.</p> - -<p>The second was a fat, dignified homo with a clipped gray mustache and -the deliberate look of a top-flight medic. The third was Shanig himself.</p> - -<p>Physically, the great man had seen better days. He was small and old -and wizened and bald, and the creases in his sallow face could have -been carved with a kit of engraver's tools. His scrawny neck hung in -slack wattles, and the hooked nose and hot black eyes of him made him -look like a dissipated desert buzzard. But I wasn't tempted to sell -him short for even in illness Shanig had the air about him of a baited -steel trap. He was an empire builder, one of these human dynamos who -pile up fortunes and then die of gastric ulcers before they can spend -their loot.</p> - -<p>"I dislike bringing you here under duress, Bailey," Shanig said. He was -trying to make it smooth, but even so he barked like a Syrtis Major -jackal. "Dr. Humphrey will explain my reasons for being so precipitate."</p> - -<p>The medic harumphed reluctantly and fiddled with his mustache. Plainly -he didn't like any part of it.</p> - -<p>"Mr. Shanig," he said, "suffers from a chronic condition of extreme -nervous tension, a result of the years of overstrain imposed upon him -by his business enterprises. I have prescribed rest and relaxation, but -at this late date Mr. Shanig is constitutionally unable to pursue that -course.</p> - -<p>"He is, in a word, incapable of relaxing; yet relax he must or collapse -completely. Sedatives are unsatisfactory, impairing the mental -processes. Mr. Shanig does not trust hypnotherapy.</p> - -<p>"As a consequence we find ourselves with only one alternative—a happy -chance resulting from your arrival at Areopolis with this, ah, smiley."</p> - -<p>I got it then. At first glance it was a neat enough idea; the catch -was that Shanig didn't know his smileys. He couldn't put himself under -Joey's euphoric golden-rule spell and still direct a big business.</p> - -<p>And besides that I hadn't gone through the slimy hells of those Mimasan -jungles to rehabilitate a burned-out old credit-shark like Hume Shanig. -Joey belonged to humanity, to the poor overwrought hypertensive homos -who really needed him.</p> - -<p>"If you want my smiley to keep this old goat from snapping his leash," -I said, "the answer is no. Joey would quiet him down like a country -churchyard, sure, but—"</p> - -<p>Shanig cut me short by smacking a peremptory hand on his desk top.</p> - -<p>"That will be all, Dr. Humphrey," he barked. "Get out."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>When the medic had gone Shanig turned on me. "I have no time to waste -in haggling, Bailey. How much do you ask for this creature?"</p> - -<p>I thought it over and it still read the same.</p> - -<p>More was at stake than the wasting of Joey's talents on a bad hat like -Shanig. There was the inevitable blowup that must come later. When -Shanig found out what being too long under a smiley's influence could -do to a homo with his financial responsibilities, there would be the -devil to pay for fair.</p> - -<p>"I don't want trouble," I said, trying to be diplomatic. "But I can't -sell Joey to you. If you'd let me explain—"</p> - -<p>"You have a commitment against your prospect ship, I believe," Shanig -cut in. "An obligation commonly referred to as a grubstake lien, is it -not?"</p> - -<p>"With Martian Bankings," I admitted. "It's a couple of weeks overdue -at the moment but Martian is a friendly outfit. They'll wait for their -credits until I sell the smiley."</p> - -<p>I couldn't be sure whether Shanig laughed or barked.</p> - -<p>"I anticipated your reluctance to sell so I purchased your lien from -Martian Bankings two hours ago. I know your reputed fondness for your -ship, and I understand too that a similar craft cannot be bought for -twice the amount of your financial obligation."</p> - -<p>He had me cold. It was a dirty trick of Martian's to sell me out, but I -could see how it was when Shanig put the screws to them.</p> - -<p>"You are in no position to bargain with me, you simple fool," Shanig -said, looking more than ever like a dissipated buzzard. "I shall make -you one offer before claiming forfeit—the cancellation of your debt -plus five thousand credits in cash."</p> - -<p>He shouldn't have baited me with the <i>Annabelle</i>. I love that rusty old -tub the way some homos love their women. And after being sandbagged -with Shanig's kind of persuasion I began to figure that selling Joey to -him was as neat a revenge as I could ask. He deserved it—plus.</p> - -<p>"All right," I said. "You've bought a smiley."</p> - -<p>Shanig thumbed his buzzer and the redhead came in from the reception -office with a legal-looking paper in her hand. She went straight to -Shanig's desk, walking in a way to make any homo's pulse beat out of -step, but when she passed Perry Acree the two of them exchanged a -swift, secret look of complete understanding that actually made me -flinch.</p> - -<p>Sometimes I think I'll never understand women. Here was this gorgeous -wench, five-feet-ten and built like a hermit's dream, and what did she -pick? An egregious little idiot who—</p> - -<p>"Sign here," Shanig grunted. He fitted the paper onto a desk pad and -whipped it toward me along with a stylus.</p> - -<p>It was a simple enough contract release giving me full title to the -<i>Annabelle</i> plus five thousand credits in exchange for uncontested -ownership to one male Mimasan smiley answering to the name of Joey.</p> - -<p>Something about the pad-and-stylus routine rang a warning bell at -the back of my mind but I was too mad to listen. I wrote "William X. -Bailey" in the proper blank and the deed was done.</p> - -<p>When Perry Acree and Shanig's hired homo signed as witnesses all of us -stood up but Shanig.</p> - -<p>"That's all," Shanig snapped, pushing a check for five thousand credits -at me. "Get out!"</p> - -<p>I took the check and went out, so mad I could feel my ears crisping. -Entering the reception room again, it didn't soothe my mangled ego any -to get a disdainful once-over from the redhead.</p> - -<p>"I'm taking a weekend off with this little item to see the sights," I -said, snapping the check. "Like to come along for the ride? There's a -little pleasure colony up on Phobos that's out of this universe, where -anything goes."</p> - -<p>"Not with you, you swamp-stained wolf," she snapped. When I waited, -grinning, she bit her lip and her eyes shot green sparks. "Beat it or -I'll buzz for Perry."</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>I didn't mind the brush-off but the idea of her calling for Perry Acree -to toss me out fanned my slow burn to a blaze.</p> - -<p>"That seed-sized cipher?" I scoffed. "Why, for two centi-credits I'd—"</p> - -<p>Shanig's door opened and Perry came out. He added up the score in a -blink and jumped to the conclusion that I was waiting to settle with -him.</p> - -<p>"Now look, Bill," he began. "I couldn't help it if—"</p> - -<p>"That secret agent stunt of yours just cost me five thousand credits, -Acree," I said, cutting him short. "I think you're going to be as sorry -as Shanig before this is over."</p> - -<p>He lost the little color he had. "I don't want trouble with you, Mr. -Bailey! Cheryl, will you—"</p> - -<p>The girl pushed her buzzer. Her eyes dodged mine, and I could read her -mind like the back of a credit-note. She was making allowances for -Perry but it hurt to call for help.</p> - -<p>Shanig's office door opened again and his two uglies came out. Both of -them had freeze guns and the yellow Martie wore my Quantrell blaster -tucked into his belt, but it was plain that they didn't expect to need -them.</p> - -<p>"Hey, take it easy!" Perry wailed, not wanting any part of this. -"That's Blaster Bill Bailey you jerks are—"</p> - -<p>They closed in, disregarding him, and I cracked their heads together -hard enough to make their knees bend like rubber. Then I took back my -Quantrell and left them holding each other up like a pair of skohl -addicts.</p> - -<p>"You can phonovise me at the Argonaut Club if you change your mind -about that weekend on Phobos," I told the redhead. "But don't wait too -long or this will have gone the way of all credits."</p> - -<p>I tucked the check away and went out with Perry Acree trailing -apologetically at my heels. Shanig had sent him to bring back the -smiley it seemed, so I let him tag along. He left the <i>Annabelle</i> with -Joey under his arm and that mesmerized Sunday-services look on his -face, and I strolled down to Martian Bankings with my check.</p> - -<p>It wasn't really a surprise to find that Shanig had stopped payment on -it. What did give me the devil of a turn, though, was realizing that he -must have double-dealt me about the <i>Annabelle</i>, too. If he wouldn't -honor a five-thousand-credit contract he'd certainly balk at giving up -a twenty-thousand-credit ship.</p> - -<p>I broke all sprint records back to the spaceyards and slammed the -<i>Annabelle's</i> port practically in the faces of Captain Giles and a -squad of patrolies who had been sent by Shanig to secure his latest -acquisition.</p> - -<p>Giles and his crew were yelling blue murder when I cut in the -<i>Annabelle's</i> jets. A moment later they were racing like mad to beat -the apron-flash of the blastoff.</p> - -<p>It was all my own fault, I told myself. I should have suspected that -desk-pad-and-stylus snare of Shanig's—he had slipped a telewriter -plate under my contract release, and when I signed it I signed another -paper, by remote control, in another office. A paper that surrendered -my smiley and also my equity in the <i>Annabelle</i>.</p> - -<p>All I had now was a worthless check and a ship spaced in defiance of -legal foreclosure. I'd be lucky, I figured, if I didn't owe Shanig a -few thousand credits into the bargain.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I didn't hit for open space, knowing that Captain Giles would have a -radar spotting-net out for me. Instead I swung the <i>Annabelle</i> eastward -and whizzed over Syrtis Major toward the abandoned oxygen-reduction -plant where I had hidden Cora, my other smiley. I needed a hideout -while I figured out a campaign to clear myself, and there was a flimsy -old warehouse at the oxy-plant that would screen the <i>Annabelle</i> nicely.</p> - -<p>I scouted the desert carefully before drifting in for landing, and saw -nothing but a great desolate ocean of gritty red sand. Back in the days -when Earth was just beginning to cool off that desert might have been a -landscape of sorts, but aeons of oxidation had changed all that. It was -nothing now but a waste of powdered iron rust, sifted fine by a million -winds and patterned by the feet of jackals.</p> - -<p>The old reduction plant huddled in a wide, shallow depression made in -years past by the scooping and hauling of sand to the converters. -It reminded me of the ghost towns I had read of as a kid, before -telemovies and stereo-spools replaced the old historical novels -carried over from the twentieth century. It was never haunted by -Indians and buffalo, but it had seen its share of jackals and sand -snakes, and the wild, little, brown baboon-faced Marties of the deserts -had smashed all its windows when the Earthies moved on.</p> - -<p>Not many reduction plants were needed on Mars any more. The first homos -to come had to wear atmosphere masks—a first-water paradox, because -the rusty red deserts were full of good oxygen locked up in simple -ferrous oxide form—but they soon changed that. When enough of them -had come they set up atom-powered reduction plants by the hundreds, -breaking the red sand back to its primal elements of iron and oxygen.</p> - -<p>They used the iron in their first cities and they let the oxygen go -free. Before the Big Jump there used to be arguments, I've heard, to -the effect that Earthies could never live permanently on Mars because -the air was too thin and oxygen-poor. But unlocking oxygen from the -sand solved half the problem, and the other half never existed.</p> - -<p>In the .38 gravity of Mars, any physical action requires only a -fraction more than one-third as much effort as it would require on -Earth. And only one-third as much oxygen is needed to sustain that -effort.</p> - -<p>So a hundred years after Earthmen abandoned the Syrtis Major plant, -I had a perfect place to lick my wounds in privacy. I berthed the -<i>Annabelle</i> in the old warehouse, opened her up from bow to stern to -let out the stink of stale tobacco smoke and machine oil, and brought -my second smiley out of the dusty records vault where I had hidden her.</p> - -<p>Cora was as affectionate as Joey and twice as eager. She made an -earnest effort to hypnotize me with that euphoric mating call of hers, -but when the khiff root kept me immune she settled down to staring -wistfully across the desert toward Areopolis where Joey radiated back -at her.</p> - -<p>I broke out the emergency rations I lived on while prospecting the -asteroids or moon-hopping, and sat down to think. I had to clear myself -with Captain Giles or I'd never see Areopolis or the Argonaut Club -again. I had to break Shanig's claim against the <i>Annabelle</i> or I'd be -an asteroid prospector without a ship. In other words, a bum.</p> - -<p>And besides that I'd have to settle with Shanig for the slimy trick he -had pulled on me or I'd be laughed out of the System. For some reason, -considering that angle reminded me again of the unlikely old romances -I'd read of the days when people rode horses and steam engines and -chivvied buffalo around with red-hot stamping irons. They prospected -for the rare earths—gold was a precious metal then, I think—and they -had to keep their reputations as he-men intact or go down before the -pellet guns of their fellow homos.</p> - -<p>It seemed to me that things hadn't changed so much, after all. I had -some small reputation of my own in the outlands, and if I let a wizened -little credit-shark like Shanig beat me I was done for.</p> - -<p>So I sat in front of the rickety old warehouse and munched my E-rations -and thought about those things until finally, being the honest type, I -had to admit that none of them mattered half as much as getting back -to Areopolis and making another pitch at a streamlined redhead with -scornful green eyes. There was still an outside chance that Cheryl -Trayne might have phonovised me at the Argonaut Bar about that weekend -on Phobos, and....</p> - -<p>I was daydreaming about that when the shutter-speed sunset of Mars -flicked away the day and left me sitting in darkness with the Syrtis -Major wind sharp and cold on my face and the wild howling of desert -jackals in my ears.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>For three interminable days I sat around the old oxy-plant, eating -and sleeping and thinking, and the monotony of it got deadlier and -deadlier. I couldn't even switch on my communications equipment for the -news since Captain Giles and his lads might be making spot patrols, -and the localized radiation of my receiving unit would be enough to -pinpoint me.</p> - -<p>I had a fair idea of what went on with Shanig, though. No homo can -operate after his fashion without making enemies, and the bigger his -business the more powerful his enemies. Vigilance becomes the price -of existence, financially speaking, and it was on that point that I -figured Shanig had over-reached himself.</p> - -<p>All that was pure guesswork, of course, until the afternoon of the -third day. Then I had unexpected confirmation of it, brought by the -last person on Mars I dreamed of seeing.</p> - -<p>I was in the <i>Annabelle's</i> cabin with Cora when the helicar settled -in front of my makeshift hangar. I came out on the double with my -Quantrell ready, and saw Cheryl Trayne standing in the warehouse -entrance. The sun, hanging low on the desert's rim, outlined her -tantalizingly against a blaze of light and made her hair a shimmering -halo of burnished copper.</p> - -<p>It was so wonderful to see her, but at the same time I was a little -disappointed. It had been a pleasant possibility that she might change -her mind about that Phobos trip, but to have her track me down like -this.</p> - -<p>"How did you find me?" I demanded. "And who's with you?"</p> - -<p>She gave me a child's trusting smile, a reversal of her old haughty -brush-off that gave me the devil of a jolt until I remembered Cora in -the <i>Annabelle's</i> cabin. Cheryl was as deep under Cora's spell now as -she must have been under Joey's before—</p> - -<p>"Never mind that," I said. "How did you get away from Shanig's smiley? -Is Shanig out of his trance, too?"</p> - -<p>She looked puzzled, as if she were trying to remember something -tremendously important.</p> - -<p>"I came alone," she said. "I traced you through Joey, after Mr. Shanig -sent Perry away with him. I remembered then how Joey always faced -toward the east when he was quiet. He used to crouch for hours in his -cage when no one was near him and stare in this direction. After he was -gone it came to me that he sensed another smiley somewhere was calling -to it. And if there was another smiley on Mars...."</p> - -<p>"Then I had brought it and I'd be with it," I finished for her. "Neat -enough. I only hope no one else thought of it."</p> - -<p>She gave me that trusting smile again, and my conscience dealt me a -sharp nudge. I went over and gave her a khiff root.</p> - -<p>"Chew it," I said. "Never mind the taste. It'll make you as good as -new."</p> - -<p>She took it obediently, and a couple of minutes later something like -horror chased the contentment out of her face. She stared at me, her -green eyes turning angry.</p> - -<p>"You must have enjoyed seeing me like that," she said acidly. "It never -occurred to me that I'd fall under the other smiley's influence if I -found you or I'd never have—"</p> - -<p>"You'd never have dared come at all," I said. "You'd have been afraid -I'd bring up that Phobos jaunt again, and you couldn't have said no -with Cora around."</p> - -<p>She bit her lip in the way she had, and I could see her admitting -reluctantly that she might just possibly have misjudged me.</p> - -<p>"All right, you found me," I said. "Now give. What happened? How did -Shanig get rid of Joey and why did you hunt me down if you're still -nursing a phobia against Phobos?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Shanig's underofficials at Solar Shipping rescued him," she said. -"They couldn't reach him at first because everyone they sent fell under -the smiley's influence. But they had to do something. Shanig was like -an irresponsible child, giving away company holdings as well as his -own. They were so frantic that—"</p> - -<p>"I tried to warn him," I pointed out. "He turned cherub the instant -Perry arrived with Joey, didn't he? Word of it got around in nothing -flat and his competitors, his enemies, starting phonovising him right -and left. They must have stood in line at the telewrite stations to -take his holdings and Solar's. A couple of days of that must have -practically ruined him and Solar Shipping as well. How did they snap -him out of it?"</p> - -<p>"They phonovised him to step out on his window balcony. When he came -out to the rail they knocked him off with a freeze gun and caught him -with a net in the street below. He almost went mad when he realized -what he had done."</p> - -<p>I grinned for two reasons. I had been right and Shanig had lost his -shirt. It served him right.</p> - -<p>"So Shanig is starting from scratch again. What line is he taking?"</p> - -<p>For the first time she looked scared.</p> - -<p>"A line you didn't anticipate. Solar's stockholders have ordered him -to recover what he gave away, and he's taking no chances on losing what -personal holdings he has left. He tried to eliminate Perry and me the -minute he snapped back to normal, and he'll have you erased as soon as -you're taken."</p> - -<p>I stared at her. "That's going pretty far, even for Shanig. Why should -he beam us out?"</p> - -<p>She gave me an exasperated look. "Because he's afraid you might force -Perry and me to swear that he tricked you on your contract release. -It didn't matter before when he was powerful enough to smother the -charge, but he's been so hard hit that he can't risk a reversal of that -contract now. Don't you see? If you brought suit for reparations and -won it would ruin him. The only way Shanig can make himself safe is to -eliminate you as claimant or to get rid of Perry and me as witnesses."</p> - -<p>It was a deadly sort of logic. I had expected Shanig to yell foul but I -hadn't looked for a planet-wide homo hunt with myself as the quarry.</p> - -<p>"It's up to us, then," I said. "We'll have to settle Shanig first or -he'll get us as sure as sin."</p> - -<p>She didn't look so frightened now as embarrassed.</p> - -<p>"That's why I came to you. We can keep out of Shanig's way, perhaps, -but poor Perry is trapped. Someone will have to get him out of that -horrible place before Shanig reaches him."</p> - -<p>I gaped a little over that one. "What horrible place? Where is Perry?"</p> - -<p>"At the Argonaut Club," she said. "As soon as Shanig was himself again -he photovised Perry and ordered him to take the smiley there, partly to -get Joey away and partly to cut down breakage expense at the Argonaut. -Perry's been there all day, associating with Eetee outlanders and -drinking skohl like any common spacehand. He'll drink himself to death -before Shanig finds a way to get to him, if we don't hurry."</p> - -<p>I laughed until my face hurt. I couldn't help it. The idea of Perry -Acree drinking himself blind in the Argonaut's rowdy company was too -much. Thinking about the prayer-meeting hush that Joey must be laying -over the toughest shot-slot in the System made it all the funnier -until the real reason for Cheryl's hunting me down percolated through -my skull and sobered me up.</p> - -<p>Her motive was enlightening, but not flattering.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"So that's why you risked your luscious hide to find me," I said. "To -talk me into dragging that idiot dwarf out of the Argonaut. Am I right?"</p> - -<p>She looked hopping mad and pleading at the same time, which is quite a -trick even for a redhead.</p> - -<p>"You can do it if anyone can. I checked on your background this -morning, and it seems that—well, that you may not be the windbag I -thought you after all. One asteroid prospector told me that you—"</p> - -<p>"Never believe a chunk-hopper," I told her. "They lie for fun or on -principle, depending on the circumstances. But I'm not interested in -Perry Acree. If he hadn't tipped Shanig to my smiley none of this would -have happened. The <i>Annabelle</i> would be clear of debt and I'd be in the -Argonaut instead of Perry. Why should I risk my neck for that simpering -sycophant?"</p> - -<p>She had trouble telling me why. Having to ask my help burned her -plenty, and its being Perry's fault made it worse. She turned pink and -talked in circles, not meeting my eye, and when I finally guessed how -she had meant to persuade me you could have clubbed me down with a sand -thistle.</p> - -<p>"You really <i>are</i> sold on that puling parasite," I said. "Look, are you -sure he's worth a weekend on Phobos?"</p> - -<p>"Beast!" she cried, and slapped my face.</p> - -<p>"Good enough," I said when my ears stopped ringing. "Faint heart never -haggled with fair hell-cat. Let's go rescue your skohl-swilling light -of love."</p> - -<p>I moved Cora's little tungsten cage into the helicar and Cheryl took -us up. We didn't have to wait for darkness. The split-second Martian -twilight took care of that in the wink of an eye.</p> - -<p>The two-hour flight was almost pleasant. The stars over our speeding -helicar glittered down like far, frosty eyes and the gritty red ocean -of desert under us lost its harshness and took on a magic pattern of -soft, shifting shadows. Phobos paced us across the black night sky like -a swift silver morning-star, and the little gray jackals crept out -of their dens and howled at her with all the pent-up loneliness of a -million, million years.</p> - -<p>Cheryl shivered at their keening, and the thought that she could be as -skittish as other women gave me a little jolt of surprise.</p> - -<p>"Mournful little beggars, aren't they?" I said. "I wonder what they'd -think of Earth, with its big yellow moon all night in the sky?"</p> - -<p>Cheryl didn't answer, but it seemed to me that she thawed out a little. -It was almost cozy in the helicar after that until the dusty neon haze -of Areopolis ballooned up out of the desert.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>We came in low to avoid any radar net the port patrol might have up, -and entered the sleeping city above the shadowy warrens of the native -district.</p> - -<p>"You'll have to be careful," Cheryl warned. "And quick. Shanig's men -will be watching the Argonaut, and the police won't have forgotten you -so soon."</p> - -<p>"I'll be careful," I said, knowing better than she the sort of odds -Shanig would favor. "The next question is where do I find you after I -drag that case of arrested development out of there?"</p> - -<p>She gave me an address. "I took a room there as soon as I realized that -Shanig was after me. I doubt that he's been able to trace me so soon."</p> - -<p>We dipped into an apartment house section and Cheryl set the helicar -down in a night-quiet street. "Apartment Six-A," she said. And then, -unexpectedly: "Take care of yourself, Bill, please. Don't do anything -rash!"</p> - -<p>I patted her shoulder reassuringly. "You may have to rescue <i>me</i> before -the night is over," I told her. "Stand by your phonovision and be ready -to bring Cora in a hurry if I call you. I can't risk taking her into -the Argonaut because of Joey, but I may need her if I run afoul of -Shanig. Got it?"</p> - -<p>She nodded and gave me her phonovision code. I got out of there and -headed down the street while she took the helicar up to her apartment -house roof landing.</p> - -<p>It wasn't far. Fifteen minutes of fast walking through the back -streets brought me up a dark alley to the Argonaut's side entrance. -The service door was locked, of course, and as a consequence none of -Shanig's uglies were guarding it.</p> - -<p>I kicked it in and went through a dusty corridor into the smoky, -skohl-pungent bar-room.</p> - -<p>The instant I was inside I knew that Cheryl had been right. Joey -was there, and he was radiating for all he was worth. There was the -spellbound crowd for proof of that.</p> - -<p>The Argonaut Club was known the breadth of the System as the toughest -dive that ever sold a drunken rockethand a pitcher of drugged skohl. I -wound up there every time I touched Mars, and I knew the dump down to -the latest ray-burn on its dingy plastoid walls. You hit some pretty -rowdy shot-slots in the other spaceports, but the Argonaut topped them -all. The Argonaut was rough.</p> - -<p>Ordinarily. Tonight it looked like a missionary's picnic.</p> - -<p>At the bar, Earthies sporting two-week passage beards and Quantrell -blasters bucked over grimy rocketroom coveralls, rubbed elbows -with cat-whiskered yellow city Martians and their vicious little -baboon-faced cousins from the deserts. Woolly blue tree men from Titan -drank with squishy Venusians and tentacled Ionians. I saw a couple of -Callistans in a corner, braced saw-horse-fashion on their jointless -legs and sticklike tails, grinning happily while they fraternized with -a pair of ponderous Europans. The Europans, coy as two honeymooning -hippos under Joey's spell, blubbered amiably back and rolled in small -polite circles on their little three-wheeled carts.</p> - -<p>Even the bouncer was happy.</p> - -<p>This last was an Earthie, a big, battered homo named Husky Harrigan who -tipped the scales at two-fifty Earthweight and looked like a tuskless -Mercurian sandhog, bristles and all. I had run into difficulties with -him before. He had the disposition of a thwarted ape, wore brass -knuckles the way other men wore finger rings, and was the prime reason -for the Argonaut's tough reputation.</p> - -<p>But tonight Harrigan was as gentle as a dove, circulating through the -crowd and shaking hands with anything that had a hand to shake.</p> - -<p>I spotted Perry Acree at once. He was sitting at a table with two -Earthies and a spiny pink Ganymedan, drinking skohl straight from -the pitcher and staring soulfully at nothing in particular. I made a -bee-line for his table but brought up short when I heard Husky Harrigan -roaring my name.</p> - -<p>Force of habit made me set myself for trouble, but under Joey's spell, -Harrigan was everybody's friend, even mine. He put out a hairy paw -and grinned like a crocodile, whinnying with joy and showing a set of -second-rate bridgework where somebody had kicked out a handful of teeth.</p> - -<p>"Hey, kids, it's Blaster Bill Bailey!" he bellowed. "C'mon and have -fun, Willie. First drink on the house!"</p> - -<p>I nearly clipped him for that "Willie" crack before I thought. Not -that I had scruples about clouting an oaf like Harrigan when he was in -no position to strike back. I just couldn't afford the delay. Captain -Giles' patrolies might be along any minute. And there was always Shanig.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So I pushed past Harrigan and yanked Perry to his feet.</p> - -<p>"Cheryl's waiting for you, Stupid," I said. "Snap to it, before I write -you off and keep the date myself."</p> - -<p>He grinned vacuously and came along like a lamb.</p> - -<p>The two patrolies looked in through the swinging doors up front when -Perry and I were halfway to the service corridor. Their sunburned faces -lighted up when they saw me, and they shoved the doors wider to command -the room with their bell-mouthed freeze guns. Behind them on the street -stood their tandem air-scooter, lights on and motor purring.</p> - -<p>"You're under arrest, Bailey," one of them called. He was a corporal, -and it was written all over him that he saw a sergeant's rating coming -for this night's work. "Come out of that!"</p> - -<p>I got a firmer grip on Perry's collar.</p> - -<p>"Come and get me," I called back, knowing what would happen if they did.</p> - -<p>They came in on the double with their freeze guns ready—and halted, -looking sheepish, when the smiley's aura got to them.</p> - -<p>"Aw, forget it," the corporal said. "You're a good guy, Bailey. Go -ahead. Go anywhere you like."</p> - -<p>"Sure," the other seconded. "Take our air-scooter if you want. Need any -extra credits where you're going?"</p> - -<p>I headed for the service with Perry again but we had waited too long. -One of Shanig's uglies was standing in the doorway with a foolish grin -on his face, and I knew there would be others waiting in the alley -outside. And those others wouldn't be under Joey's influence.</p> - -<p>So I cut for the front entrance instead, dragging Perry like a bag of -old laundry. The patrolies' air-scooter stood purring at the curb. I -draped Perry across it and jumped for the operator's seat, expecting to -be beamed down any second. I'd have made it, too, but for Perry.</p> - -<p>Perry had taken on a monumental load of skohl during the day, and the -instant he was out of Joey's influence the inflated little ego of him -demanded to be heard. He scrambled off the air-scooter, swelled out his -size thirty-two chest and launched into an old rocketroom ballad—a -smutty saga listing the personal iniquities of the Captain Crow who led -the first Mars flight just before the turn of the century.</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">In nineteen hundred and ninety-two</div> - <div class="verse">A <i>homo</i> from Milwaukee</div> - <div class="verse">Warmed up his jets and—</div> -</div></div> - -<p>I quieted him with a rabbit punch and tossed him back on the -air-scooter, but the damage was done. I hit the control seat again just -as Shanig's crew swarmed out of the alley and surrounded us.</p> - -<p>The air-scooter took off like a rocket when I gave it the gun, plowing -straight through them. I hung on somehow, but Perry wasn't so lucky. He -bounced once and pitched off, square into the enemy's hands.</p> - -<p>When I looked back at the first street intersection they had scooped -him up and were headed toward Solar Shipping in a hurry. The sight -reassured me a little. They hadn't blasted Perry on the spot, which -meant that they would probably hold him as hostage until they got -Cheryl as well. One witness at large was as dangerous to Shanig as two, -and the chances were he wouldn't risk beaming out one unless he could -be sure of both.</p> - -<p>I took the only course left, doubling the air-scooter back and skimming -toward Shanig's offices.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">V</p> - -<p>The way the situation added up reminded me of the old historical -thrillers I'd read as a kid, most of them written in the days when our -rough-and-ready ancestors bought contraband skohl from underground -talk-gentlies and rival groups of uglies hijinked each other with -torpedoes. It was something like a present-day telemovie gripper in a -sense, only there wasn't any Colonel Super in this plot to lend me a -hand.</p> - -<p>Not that I wasted time looking for help. I wasn't used to it.</p> - -<p>Outside the Solar Shipping building I lifted the air-scooter and -swooped up to the balcony outside Shanig's office windows. There wasn't -time to set it down. I needed every second to get inside before Shanig -could give the alarm.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>I jumped, and the air-scooter went on without me into the night. It -wouldn't have worked on Earth, but under Mars' .38 gravity an athletic -homo has all the breaks. I landed just inside the guard-rail and dived -through the balcony windows with a great crashing of glass before -Shanig could clap a hand to the buzzer on his desk.</p> - -<p>"Don't touch it," I said, and turned my Quantrell on him.</p> - -<p>"You!" Shanig barked. His face went sallower than ever, but his hot -black eyes didn't waver. "What do you want here?"</p> - -<p>Down the corridor rose a sudden babel of voices—Shanig's crew -returning with their prize.</p> - -<p>"They got Acree," I said, heading for the phonovision unit beside -Shanig's desk. "But if you make a sound before they get here you won't -be able to use him. Clear?"</p> - -<p>The screen lit up when I touched the switch. I punched the code Cheryl -had given me, and drew the first deep breath I'd had for an hour when -she looked out at me.</p> - -<p>"Bring Cora over to Shanig's office on the double," I said. "I'm going -to need her but quick!"</p> - -<p>I cut her off without waiting for an answer and punched another number. -Captain Giles stared out at me this time, his weathered hatched face -clownish with astonishment.</p> - -<p>"Get a crew of patrolies up to Shanig's offices," I said. "And make it -fast or there's going to be more excitement here than you can write off -your records in a month."</p> - -<p>For the first time Shanig looked worried. He saw no threat in Cheryl's -coming, not knowing about my second smiley. But if Captain Giles should -arrive before Perry could be moved—</p> - -<p>The crew of uglies outside crossed me up by buzzing Shanig's audiphone. -"We got the little homo, Chief. Shall we bring him in?"</p> - -<p>Shanig, knowing that I couldn't afford to beam him at this stage of the -game, tipped them before I could stop him. "Take him away. Bailey's -here!"</p> - -<p>I jumped for the door, hoping to grab Perry before they got him away. I -was too late. They were already out of the reception office. All I saw -of Perry Acree was his heels.</p> - -<p>That left us at stalemate. Shanig couldn't get away, and I couldn't -leave him unguarded to go after Perry. I was racking my brain for the -next move when it was taken out of my hands.</p> - -<p>The phonovision screen beside Shanig's desk lighted up and one of his -uglies looked out. "We got him where he won't be found, Chief. What -next?"</p> - -<p>And I let Shanig beat me to the jump again. "The girl is coming here. -Intercept her!"</p> - -<p>I made sure it wouldn't happen again by raying the phonovision unit to -a heap of smoking junk. Reflected heat from the flash curled Shanig's -eyebrows, but he didn't flinch.</p> - -<p>"That finishes you, Bailey," he said. "My men have Acree safe. They'll -have the girl the instant she appears. Under the circumstances it -should be quite entertaining to watch you prove your position to the -police."</p> - -<p>He had me cold. Shanig could afford to wait but I couldn't.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It turned out that Shanig's handymen didn't share his confidence in the -police. I heard them getting set in the reception-room corridor to -block any dash I might make. When I sneaked a look through the balcony -windows I caught a glimpse of another group working like beavers in the -building across the alley. They were setting up a tripod affair which I -recognized at a glance as a sleep-bomb catapult.</p> - -<p>They had it charged to fire when Captain Giles and his patrolies -arrived. A babble of confusion rose in the corridor again, and the -Captain's harsh bellow silenced it like a hand across the mouth. A -moment later he called through the doorway: "Stand fast, Bailey. We're -coming in, and God help you if you give us trouble!"</p> - -<p>I stood fast, giving up any hope of Cheryl's showing up in time. Having -Cora along should make it easy enough for her to get into the building, -but even Cora couldn't help if Captain Giles had already dragged me -away.</p> - -<p>Giles came around Shanig's desk toward me, his hatchet face thunderous. -"I've warned you often enough, Bailey. This time you've gone too far."</p> - -<p>Shanig treated himself to one of his sandpaper chuckles. "He'll -probably give you some wild story designed to clear himself, Captain. -Don't believe a word of it. I trusted him, and you can see what it led -to!"</p> - -<p>The Captain was taking my Quantrell blaster when my reprieve came. One -of Shanig's uglies burst into the office with disaster written all over -him.</p> - -<p>"Chief, the girl's coming up in the lift with another smiley! The whole -lower floor is hypnotized. She'd have got me too if the lift hadn't -carried me out of reach!"</p> - -<p>I'll give Shanig credit for this—he thought fast. He added up the -score in a flash and lunged across the desk, yelling for his startled -uglies to follow up. If Cheryl got to us with the smiley the jig was -up, and he knew it.</p> - -<p>He ripped the Quantrell blaster out of Captain Giles' hand and turned -it on us. He meant to wipe out the lot and clear himself by laying the -carnage to a battle between me and the patrol.</p> - -<p>It was close, but not close enough.</p> - -<p>A sudden serenity wiped the tension off his face like chalk marks off -a blackboard. Captain Giles and his patrolies slacked off with him, -caught in the same euphoric spell.</p> - -<p>They stood smiling and docile while Cheryl Trayne strode in with Cora's -little tungsten cage under her arm. If she had looked good to me -before, right then she looked like a red-haired angel.</p> - -<p>"Good girl," I said, and took over from there.</p> - -<p>Shanig confessed on the spot to the slimy deal he had pulled over me, -and signed a statement to that effect. He got on the reception-room -phonovision and ordered his crew in the adjoining building to drop -everything and return Perry Acree at once. He destroyed the bogus -contract and took back the elastic check he had given me, and he -enjoyed doing it. Cora, sensing Joey so close in the Argonaut Bar -across the street, was working her mating call overtime.</p> - -<p>"It was really inconsiderate of you to swindle our young friend -William," the Captain said to Shanig. "Of course you won't object to -serving a light sentence—say five years—to make amends?"</p> - -<p>"Certainly not," Shanig said brightly, beaming back at him. "My only -regret is that I must be separated from this adorable creature. I love -smileys."</p> - -<p>He went over to the desk where Cheryl had left Cora's cage and fondled -the little brute through the wires. He played the very devil in doing -it, too. Somehow or other the cage door had worked loose during the -time it had been banged about, and Shanig's fumbling hands slid it open.</p> - -<p>Cora was out of the cage and through the broken balcony windows in a -smoky bluish flash, whizzing like a bullet toward the Argonaut Club and -Joey.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">VI</p> - -<p>Everybody snapped back to normal with a roar. There was a frantic rush -of Shanig's uglies trying to escape and of Giles' patrolies collaring -them again. I took no chances with Shanig. I turned my Quantrell on him -and held him fast.</p> - -<p>Hell broke loose in the Argonaut then. Even before the confusion -quieted in Shanig's office we could hear the din that went up across -the street.</p> - -<p>From our balcony windows we had a grandstand view of the Argonaut's -more timid patrons exploding out of the place and tearing down the -street, wobbling and lurching each in his own outlandish fashion from -the assortment of Eetee drinks they had taken aboard under Joey's -spell. The rougher souls left inside had begun a battle royal that -raised a bedlam wilder than a robot rooting section at a rocket-games -stadium.</p> - -<p>"What is it!" Captain Giles yelled, goggling at a barrel-bellied -Europan who shot out of the Argonaut with a pack of little baboon-faced -Marties harrying its speeding cart from the rear. "What have you done -now?"</p> - -<p>"Shanig has just ruined a forty-thousand-credit investment for -me," I told him, "by letting my pair of smileys get together. That -peace-be-on-you feeling they've been broadcasting is a thing of the -past. They feel just the opposite now, and so will anyone who goes near -them."</p> - -<p>I had to explain it twice before they got it.</p> - -<p>Mimasan smileys, as I've said before, are weird little brutes. Unmated, -their euphoric mating calls attract them to each other and at the same -time protects them from native predators. The catch is that when they -mate they coalesce, each complementing the insubstantiality of the -other to become a single material entity.</p> - -<p>And then, of course, there's no further need of their wistful, coaxing -aura.</p> - -<p>After that they hate everybody, being newlyweds and not wanting to be -disturbed, so of course they radiate an exactly opposite aura that -guarantees them the privacy their joint little heart craves. Nothing -can come near enough to interrupt them without becoming so rabidly -angry that it has to rush off somewhere else looking for something to -fight. But you see how it goes.</p> - -<p>"And from the row going on in the Argonaut," I finished, "I'd say that -Joey and Cora are definitely on their honeymoon."</p> - -<p>"You mean they'll be like that always?" Cheryl asked, wide-eyed. "That -no one can go near them without flying into a rage?"</p> - -<p>"Not always," I said glumly. "Just for five years. After that they -divide by fission into a dozen or so baby smileys, and after that the -rat-race starts over again. The progeny will be worth plenty, but who's -going to stand guard over that amalgamated little demon while it -broadcasts hate and damnation in every direction? I won't, and there's -not a homo in the System that would take the job for love or—"</p> - -<p>The answer hit me like a thumb in the eye, bang in the middle of a -sentence.</p> - -<p>"Captain Giles," I said. "I've a suggestion that...."</p> - -<p>The Captain got it on first bounce. For the first time in history he -laughed without benefit of smiley.</p> - -<p>It worked out neatly enough, at that. An Areopolitan court decreed -that Shanig, being bound by the requirements of Martian law to expiate -his crimes with as little expense to the polity as possible, should -spend the five years of his sentence guarding Joey-Cora in a force-wall -detention area to be set up in Syrtis Major. By the time his term ended -my combination smiley would have fissioned, Shanig would have paid his -debt to society and my investment would have paid dividends.</p> - -<p>It could have been worse. For the time being I was out some forty -thousand credits, but I managed to salvage enough for a moderate -celebration by contracting with the government to furnish <i>khiff</i> -roots from Mimas to keep Shanig from going berserk under Joey-Cora's -influence.</p> - -<p>The arrangement wasn't too hard on Shanig, even. The worst of it would -be the isolation—that, and the packs of Syrtis Major jackals that -would crowd around the force-wall at night and howl for his blood.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>"Good enough," I told Cheryl after the trial. "That leaves just one -small detail to be arranged. I'll have to wangle another loan from -Martian Bankings."</p> - -<p>She raised a slim brow. "Loan? For a grubstake?"</p> - -<p>"For our weekend on Phobos," I said. "Remember?"</p> - -<p>She laughed. "There's another little detail you overlooked, William. My -ring size is five and one-half."</p> - -<p>"Ring?" I said. "Oh, a ring.... Would you rather have a Tellurian -diamond, an A-belt fire-opal, or—"</p> - -<p>"Nothing expensive," she cut me off. "Something simpler would be more -appropriate, I think. Under the circumstances, I'd suggest a plain -gold band."</p> - -<p>I gaped at her like a swamp-guppy until it seeped through my skull that -she was in dead earnest.</p> - -<p>"Wait up," I said. "What about Perry Acree?"</p> - -<p>She snapped her fingers. "<i>That</i> for Perry. I thought I wanted the -little creep until you brought him back, but after that I couldn't bear -the sight of him."</p> - -<p>"You mean," I said, grasping at any straw, "that you really want to -be—"</p> - -<p>"Married," she said definitely. "First and firmly, or no Phobos trips!"</p> - -<p>"It wouldn't last," I argued. "Being an A-belt prospector's wife is no -snap, Cheryl. I'd be out in the <i>Annabelle</i> for weeks on end, slamming -around in God knows what kind of dangers. And one of these days I -wouldn't come back at all and you'd be a widow."</p> - -<p>"<i>You</i> wouldn't be slamming around," she corrected me softly. "<i>We</i> -would, Willie dear. I'd be with you every minute."</p> - -<p>That did it. It was "Willie dear" already, and she'd be with me every -minute. Even in port....</p> - -<p>"I'll have to give this some serious thought," I said. "Look, you -wouldn't want us to plunge into a deal that wouldn't work out, would -you?"</p> - -<p>"Of course not," she said with a demure certainty that made my blood -curdle. "But this will work, Willie darling. I'll see to that."</p> - -<p>I got out of there and went down to Martian Bankings in the devil of -a hurry. They were apologetic over selling my grubstake lien, and -were glad to advance me a few thousand credits against Joey-Cora's -expectations.</p> - -<p>For once I passed the Argonaut Club without even looking back. A homo -with a skinful of skohl is short on resistance, and resistance just -then was what I needed most.</p> - -<p>When I reached the blastoff aprons, the <i>Annabelle's</i> rusty old hulk -was the sweetest sight I ever saw. I pointed her lovely, meteor-dented -nose at the sky and blasted off, and the howling of her jets was like -a lullaby in my ears. The starry backdrop of space ahead was like a -cosmos-sized painting of all Creation, a master canvas done.</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OH MESMERIST FROM MIMAS! ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. -</div> - -<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> -<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person -or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the -Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when -you share it without charge with others. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work -on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the -phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: -</div> - -<blockquote> - <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most - other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions - whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms - of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online - at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you - are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws - of the country where you are located before using this eBook. - </div> -</blockquote> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg™ License. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format -other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain -Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -provided that: -</div> - -<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation.” - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ - works. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - </div> - - <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> - • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. - </div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right -of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread -public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state -visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate -</div> - -<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. -</div> - -</div> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/64641-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/64641-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e0db06a..0000000 --- a/old/64641-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/64641-h/images/illus.jpg b/old/64641-h/images/illus.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e70ab47..0000000 --- a/old/64641-h/images/illus.jpg +++ /dev/null |
