MR. BIGGS GOES TO TOWN By NELSON S. BOND When Lancelot Biggs started in the soap-making business on this asteroid, he got strange results! [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories October 1942. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] One thing is certain. When bigger and better shirts are made, the officials of the Corporation which underpays us will stuff 'em. We were squatting in a cradle on Earth, waiting for flight orders, when the control turret door swung open and in marched two owl-eyed zombies dressed in frowns and white mess jackets. One of these looked at us, then at a slip of paper. He said, "Donovan, Herbert J.?" "Present," I said, "but not accountable for. Otherwise known as 'Sparks.' What's the matter, Satyr? Who found out what about me?" "Come," ordered the stranger curtly, "with me!" And he jerked a thumb in the general direction of the doorway. Cap Hanson--he's the skipper of our space-shuttling freighter, the _Saturn_--bridled like a mick at an Orangeman's Ball. If there's one thing he cannot tolerate, it is hearing anyone else issue orders on his bridge. His brows congealed into fur-line cumulus clouds. "And what," he demanded, "is the meaning of this, if I may ask, gentlemen?" The other whiteclad studied him briefly. "Hanson?" he queried. "Captain Waldemar V.?" "That is my name, sir. And why--?" "Come with me," said the second spectre, and diddled his digit like my accoster. I said, "Not so fast, kiddies. Last time I followed a flickering phalange I ended up in an alley behind a Martian joy-joint with a headful of ache and a walletful of nothing. In words of one syllable, what's this all about?" My answer came not from the pair before us, but from the entrance behind them. Through this came two figures. The foremost was that of my long-time friend and shipmate, Lieutenant Lancelot Biggs; behind him was his uncle Prendergast, 1st Vice-president of the I.P.C. It was the older Biggs who spoke. "It's all right, Sparks. These men are acting under company orders. They are medical officers assigned to give a physical examination to every man aboard the _Saturn_." "Every man?" choked Cap Hanson. "Did you say _every_ man, sir?"