But he made a memo to look into it. Rhadampsicus stretched himself. Out on the ninth planet, the weather was slightly warmer--almost six degrees Kelvin, two hundred and sixty-odd degrees centigrade below zero--and he was inclined to be lazy. But he was very handsome, in Nodalictha's eyes. He was seventy or more feet from his foremost eye stalk to the tip of his least crimson appendage, and he fluoresced beautifully in the starlight. He was a very gallant young bridegroom. When he saw Nodalictha looking at him admiringly, he said with his customary tenderness: "It was fatiguing to make him go through it, darling, but since you wished it, it is done. He now has food to share with the female." "And you're handsome, too, Rhadampsicus!" Nodalictha said irrelevantly. She felt as brides sometimes do on their honeymoons. She was quite sure that she had not only the bravest and handsomest of husbands, but the most thoughtful and considerate. Presently, with their eye stalks intertwined, he asked softly: "Are you weary of this place, darling? I would like to watch the rest of this rather rare phenomenon, but if you're not interested, we can go on. And truly I won't mind." "Of course we'll stay!" protested Nodalictha. "I want to do anything you want to. I'm perfectly happy just being with you." And, unquestionably, she was. * * * * * Carson, though bored, was a bit upset by the recorded conversation he'd listened to. Lon Simpson had been almost incoherent, but he obviously meant Cathy to take him seriously. And there were some things to back it up. He'd reported his generator hopelessly useless--and hadn't bought a new one. He'd reported all his food spoiled--and hadn't bought more. Carson thought it over carefully. The crop inspection helicopter reported Simpson's fields in much better shape than average, so his tractor was obviously working. Carson asked casual, deadpan questions of other colonists who came into the Company store. Most of them were harried, sullen and bitter. They were unanimously aware of the wringer they were being put through. They knew what the Company was doing to them and they hated Carson because he represented it. But they did answer Carson's casual questions about Lon Simpson. Yes, he'd tried to borrow food from them. No, they couldn't lend it to him. Yes, he was still eating. In fact he was offering to swap food. He was short on fruit and long on frozen green peas. Then he was long on fruit and frozen green peas and short on frozen sweet corn and strawberries. No, he didn't want to trade on a big scale. One package of frozen strawberries was all he wanted. He gave six packages of frozen peas for it. He gave six packages of frozen strawberries for one package of frozen sweet corn. He'd swapped a dozen parcels of sweet corn for one of fillet of flounder, two dozen fillet of flounder for cigarettes, and fifty cartons of cigarettes for a frozen roast of beef.