"Shut up," Tolomo snapped. "I let you run up a bill here when nobody
else would. Now you take this job and pay me or I have the marshal put
you in jail. At hard labor, in the swamps."
Garth called Tolomo something unprintable. "Okay," he groaned. "You
win, louse. You know damn well no Earthman can stand swampwork, even
with bog-shoes. Now let go of my hair before I smash your teeth in."
"You do it? You guide these people?"
"I said I would, didn't I?" Garth reached fumblingly for the bottle
before him. Someone thrust a filled glass into his hand. He gulped the
fiery purplish liquor, shuddered, and blew out his breath.
"Okay," he said. "Welcome to Ganymede, the pleasure spot of the System.
The worst climate outside Hell, the only world almost completely
unexplored, and the nicest place for going to the dogs I've ever
seen. The Chamber of Commerce greets you. Here's the representative."
He pointed to a six-legged lizard with the face of a gargoyle that
scuttled over the table and leaped into the shadows where the light of
the radio-lamp did not reach.
Captain Brown said, "I can offer you fifty dollars to guide us to the
ruined city--Chahnn. And, maybe, I can offer you _ten thousand bucks_
to do another little job for us."
* * * * *
The shock of that was more effective than cold water had been. Garth
jerked back, for the first time looking at his companions. There were
two of them--a man and a girl, their neat tropical outfits looking out
of a place in this grimy dive. The man was thin and bronzed, looking
as though all the moisture had been boiled out of him by hot suns.
He was made of tough leather, Garth thought. His face was the most
expressionless one Garth had ever seen--pale, shallow eyes, a rat-trap
mouth, and the general air of a tiger taking it easy.
The girl ... sudden sick pain struck through Garth. She looked like
Moira. For an incredible moment he thought, with his liquor-dulled
mind, that she had come back. But Moira was dead--had been, for nearly
five years now.
Five years of living death--hitting the skids on Ganymede, where men
go down fast. Garth's ravaged face hardened. He forced himself to look
squarely at the girl.
She wasn't Moira, after all. She had the same look of sleek, clean
femininity, but her hair was golden-red instead of brown, and her eyes
were greenish, not blue. The softness in her face was belied by the
stubborn, rounded chin.
"Ten thousand?" Garth repeated softly. "I don't get the picture. Any
native could take you to Chahnn."
The girl said, "We know that. We're interested in--something else.
Could you use ten grand?"
"Yeah! Yeah, I could," Garth said.
"What would you do with it? Go back to Earth? We might swing it so you
could get a job there. There's been a shortage of men ever since the
Silver Plague started."
Garth laid his fingers gently around the glass and squeezed, till the
transparent plastic was bent out of shape. He didn't look at the girl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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