But it turned out to be anything but a celebration. Horseface rushed
Elmer into the community stable, unhooked the saddle-bags, dropped the
stall-bar, and ran toward Trixie's place, "The Pride of Terra".
Every man in the camp was waiting at the door, and waiting
vociferously. The comments mingled into an indistinguishable babble. A
few miners were loitering around the rocket, a small two-seater, like
mice cagily inspecting a new and baffling trap. Horseface recognized it
by the device emblazoned on one of its doors--a yellow sunburst on a
grey square, the insignia of United Mars.
The rocket belonged to Thurd Goreck, the Martian. Goreck hadn't been in
town for years. He and his fellows had their diggings over at Saturday
Wells, "Saturday" for short, in the west. What, Horseface wondered,
possibly could have brought him here?
Since Horseface was a little below average height, he couldn't see
over the heads of the crowd. He raced up the steps of an old ruin
opposite Trixie's establishment. A shrieking beam from a blast-gun
fired at random just missed him and scorched the wood overhead.
He heard Trixie's bark: "Stop it, boys, do you hear me? Somebody's
likely to get hurt!"
She was standing in her doorway, a big sculpturesque woman with her
feet planted solidly wide and her red fists on her broad hips. Her face
was square and rough-hewn as a man's, the skin leathery from years of
weathering. She'd thrown her blue lace scarf around her shoulders, the
scarf that Mike O'Neill had given her on their first anniversary. Her
crystal earrings dangled under her cottony hair--a bad sign. Trixie
never put on her shawl and earrings unless thinking of leaving town.
Thurd Goreck lounged against the door-frame beside her. Like most
Martians, he was tall and spindle-legged, large-chested, big-nosed and
equipped with almost elephantine ears. He displayed quite a paternal
solicitude whenever he looked at Trixie, but he sneered openly at the
yelping crowd.
"Don't do it, Trix!" somebody roared above the din.
"You'll be sorry!" another warned.
Still another wanted to know, "Have you forgotten Mike?"
Then Horseface noticed that the other Martians from Goreck's settlement
were ranged on either side of Trixie and Goreck, holding off the
Finchburgers. It was they who were doing most of the firing--warning
blasts over the crowd's heads.
"No," Trixie yelled, "I ain't forgotten Mike. He was a better man than
the lot of you put together!"
Horseface whistled to Candy Derain, who turned and edged toward him.
"What's up, Candy?"
"Man!" Candy reached at him. "You're just the one we need--Trixie's
running away! You got to do something quick!"
"She's--huh?"
"Goreck's been lazing around town almost ever since you went out nugget
hunting. He's taking Trixie to Saturday--going to set her up there in a
new place. He was smart and waited till you weren't around, 'cause he
knows you cut a lot of ice with Trix. You got to stop her--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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