"Absolutely all," the surveyor said. "I shall bring this sample
back and have it assayed and evaluated immediately. From it and the
depth-photographs we can extrapolate the value and extent of your
claim."
"Send me back something to take care of the wolves," Morrison said.
"And food. And listen--I want a Prospector's Special."
"Yes, sir. It will all be 'ported to you--if your claim is of
sufficient value to warrant the outlay."
The robot climbed into the vortex and vanished.
Time passed, and the wolves edged forward again. They snarled at the
rocks Morrison threw, but they didn't retreat. Jaws open and tongues
lolling, they crept up the remaining yards between them and the
prospector.
Then the leading wolf leaped back and howled. A gleaming vortex had
appeared over his head and a rifle had fallen from the vortex, striking
him on a forepaw.
The wolves scrambled away. Another rifle fell from the vortex. Then a
large box marked _Grenades, Handle With Care_. Then another box marked
_Desert Ration K_.
Morrison waited, staring at the gleaming mouth of the vortex. It
crossed the sky to a spot a quarter of a mile away and paused there,
and then a great round brass base emerged from the vortex, and the
mouth widened to allow an even greater bulge of brass to which the
base was attached. The bulge grew higher as the base was lowered
to the sand. When the last of it appeared, it stood alone in the
horizon-to-horizon expanse, a gigantic ornate brass punchbowl in the
desert. The vortex rose and paused again over the bowl.
Morrison waited, his throat raw and aching. Now a small trickle came
out of the vortex and splashed down into the bowl. Still Morrison
didn't move.
* * * * *
And then it came. The trickle became a roar that sent the wolves and
kites fleeing in terror, and a cataract poured from the vortex to the
huge punchbowl.
Morrison began staggering toward it. He should have ordered a canteen,
he told himself thirstily, stumbling across the quarter of a mile of
sand. But at last he stood beneath the Prospector's Special, higher
than a church steeple, wider than a house, filled with water more
precious than goldenstone itself. He turned the spigot at the bottom.
Water soaked the yellow sands and ran in rivulets down the dune.
He should have ordered a cup or glass, Morrison thought, lying on his
back with open mouth.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prospector's Special, by Robert Sheckley
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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