Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space warfare -- Fiction
"I'll do that, Strongheart old pal, I sure will," the Lensman agreed,
amiably enough. "You run a nice joint here and I like it."
Thus Kinnison went to the asteroid belts of Tressilia and there Bill
Williams found rich metal. Or, more precisely, he dumped out into
space and then recovered a very special meteor indeed--one in whose
fabrication Kinnison's own treasure-trove had played a leading part. He
did not find it the first day, of course, nor during the first week--it
would be a trifle smelly to have even Wild Bill strike it rich too
soon--but after a decent interval of time.
His Tressilian find had to be very much worth while, far too much so
to be left to chance; for Edmund Crowninshield, the Regional Director,
inhabited no such rawly obvious dive as Miners' Rest. He catered only
to the upper crust; meteor miners and other similar scum were never
permitted to enter his door.
When Kinnison repaired the Bergenholm of the Borovan spaceliner he had,
by sheerest accident, laid the groundwork of a perfect approach, and
now he was taking advantage of the circumstance. That incident had been
reported widely: it was well known that Wild Bill Williams had been a
gentleman once. If he should strike it rich--really rich--what would be
more natural than that he should forsake the noisesome space hells he
had been wont to frequent in favor of such gilded palaces of sin as the
Crown-On-Shield?
In due time, then, Kinnison "found" his special meteor, which was big
enough and rich enough so that any miner would have taken it to a
Patrol station instead of to a space robber. He disposed of his whole
load by analysis; then, with more money in the bank than William
Williams had ever dreamed of having, he hesitated visibly before
embarking upon one of the gorgeous, spectacular sprees from which he
had derived his nickname. He hesitated; then, with an effort apparent
to all observers, he changed his mind.
He had been a gentleman once, he would be again. He had his hair cut,
he had himself shaved every day. Manicurists dug away and scrubbed
away the ingrained grime from his hardened, meteor-miner's paws. His
nails, even, became pink and glossy. He bought clothes, including the
full-dress shorts, barrel-top jacket, and voluminous cloak of the
Aldebaranian gentleman, and wore them with easy grace.
And in the meantime he was drinking steadily. He drank, however, only
the choicest beverages; decorously and--for him--sparingly. Thus,
while he was seldom what could be called strictly sober, he was never
really drunk. He shunned low resorts, living in the best hotels and
frequenting only the finest taverns. The finest, that is, with one
exception, the Crown-On-Shield. Not only did he not go there, he never
spoke of or would discuss the place. It was as though for him it did
not exist.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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