RIVALS
"That's enough, Eysie!"
Although Traders by law and no more personal weapons—except in times of great crisis—than hand sleep rods, the from the was just as for temporary as a more beam—and the threat of it was to the three men who had come to the of the Queen's and who see the by Ali. Ali's were anything but negligent, however, and Free Traders had to be by their of the Companies. The very nature of their them lessons—which they either learned or died.
Dane, over the Engineer-apprentice's shoulder, saw that Van Rycke's of had paid off. They had left the of the Salariki three-quarters of an hour ago. But now the Captain of the I-S ship and his Cargo-master.
"I want to speak to your Captain—" the Eysie officer.
Ali registered amusement, an which to the in the spectator, as Dane of old when that same had been on him as the of the Queen's crew.
"But he wish to speak to you?" Kamil. "Just where you are, Eysie, until we are sure about that fact."
That was his to act as messenger. Dane into the ship and up the to the section. As he passed Captain Jellico's private he the of the commander's pet—Queex, the Hoobat—a of crab, and toad, a and to and at all comers. Since Queex would not be in that fashion if its master was present, Dane on to the where he in upon an executive level of Captain, Cargo-master and Astrogator.
"Well?" Jellico's left as he that at the messenger.
"Eysie Captain below, sir. With his Cargo-master. They want to see you—"
Jellico's mouth was a line, his very hard. By Dane's hand to the of the sleep at his belt. When the Old Man put on his face—look out! Here we go again, he told himself, as to just what type of action them now.
"Oh, they do, do they!" Jellico and then the he put under iron when and if it were necessary. "Very well, tell them to where they are. Van, we'll go down—"
For a moment the Cargo-master hesitated, his heavy-lidded looked sleepy, he almost in the suggestion. And when he it was with the air of someone about to perform some duty.
"Right, sir." He his from the small table, his tunic, and settled his cap with as much as if he were about to the Queen the assembled of Sargol.
Dane the ladders, to a Ali. It was the turn of the man at the of the to an demand:
"Well?" (Was that the word of every Captain's vocabulary?)
"You wait," Dane with no to give the Eysie officer any address. Close to a Terran year the Solar Queen had him with in his own of Service. A Free Trader was to his own officers and to no one else on earth—or among the stars—no how much and official the Companies used to their power.
He the I-S officers to after an answer such as that. For a Company Captain to be to wait upon the of a Free Trader must be in the extreme. And the that this one was doing just that was an that the Queen's did, perhaps, have the of in any bargain. In the meantime the Eysie while Ali against the port, playing with his sleep and Dane the forest. His a packet just the port and he from it to Ali.
"Cat ransom," the other answered his question.
So that was it—the for Sinbad's return. "What is it today?"
"Sugar—about a full," the Engineer-assistant returned, "and two steelos. So they haven't up the price on us. I think they're out the evenly, a new him every night."
As did all Terran ships, the Solar Queen a cat as an of the regular crew. And the Sinbad, their landing on Sargol, had presented any problem. He had done his of the ship of and and with dispatch, and energy. And when in port on worlds had any to go a-roving.
But the of Sargol had him, away his solid and middle-aged dependability. Now Sinbad out of the Queen at the opening of her port in the early and was back, with voice and claws, at the end of the day by that of the population turn it was to the for his delivery. Within three days it had an which satisfied but Sinbad.
The of metal on of the of their officers. Ali and Dane the corridor, the entrance open for Jellico and Van Rycke. Then they to the meeting with the Eysies.
There were no the two parties, no offer of as might have been Terrans on an a of the Galaxy away from the earth which had them a common heritage.
Jellico, with Van Rycke at his shoulder, he from the so that the three Inter-Solar men, Captain, Cargo-master and escort, they or no, were put in the position of having to look up to a Captain they, as members of one of the powerful Companies, to despise. The lean, well muscled, of the Queen's gave the of hard in check by will control, just as his under its thick of space was that of an to make second decisions—an by that of across one cheek.
Van Rycke, with a of dress, have been a Company man in the higher ranks—or so the would have him, until an marked the those lids, or a note in the calm, of his voice. To look at the two senior officers of the Free Trading were the of each other—in action they were each of a powerful, whole—as a good many men in the Service—scattered over a dozen or so planets—had to their cost in the past.
Now Jellico the of his space together with an and his hand at the of his in a which was to the Patrol hero of a out-of-date Video serial.
"Jellico, Solar Queen, Free Trader," he himself brusquely, and added, "this is Van Rycke, our Cargo-master."
Not all the had from the of the I-S Captain.
"Grange of the Dart," he did not sketch a salute. "Inter-Solar. Kallee, Cargo-master—" And he did not name the third of his party.
Jellico waiting and after a long moment of Grange was to his business.
"We have until noon—"
Jellico, his in his belt, waited. And under his level the Eysie Captain to the going hard.
"They have us until noon," he started once more, "to together—"
Jellico's voice came, remote. "There is no for any 'getting together,' Grange. By I can have you up the Trade Board for poaching. The Solar Queen has here. If you up-ship a amount of time, I'll be to let it pass. After all I've no to all the way to the nearest Patrol post to report you—"
"You can't to Inter-Solar. We'll make you an offer—" That was Kallee's contribution, his officer couldn't enough.
Jellico, forté was more direct action, took an into heavy-handed sarcasm. "You Eysies have been excellent briefing. I would a little closer study of the Code—and not the in small at the end of the tape, either! We're not anyone. You'll our registration for Sargol on at the Center. And I that the sooner you the better—before we you for illegal planeting."
Grange had of his emotions. "We're from Center here," he remarked. It was a of fact, but it over-tones which they were able to correctly. The Solar Queen was a Free Trader, alone on an world. But the I-S ship might be in company, to aid, men and supplies. Dane a breath, the Eysies must be sure of themselves, not only that, but they must want what Sargol had to offer to the point of being to step the law to it.
The I-S Captain took a step forward. "I think we each other now," he said, his restored.
Van Rycke answered him, his voice across the of the wind in the forest.
"Your proposition?"
Perhaps this return to their threat their in the of the Company, their that no up against the might and power of Inter-Solar. Kallee replied:
"We'll take up your contract, at a profit to you, and you up-ship the Salariki are over they are to with—"
"And the amount of profit?" Van Rycke in.
"Oh," Kallee shrugged, "say ten of Cam's last shipment—"
Jellico laughed. "Generous, aren't you, Eysie? Ten of a which can't be assessed—the on Limbo no records of what they plundered."
"We don't know what he was when he on Limbo," Kallee swiftly. "We'll our offer on what he to Axal."
Now Van Rycke chucked. "I wonder who that one out?" he of the winds. "He must save the Company a amount of one way or another. Interesting offer—"
By the to be read on the three the I-S men were of their victory. The Solar Queen would be paid off with a pittance, under the threat of Company she would up-ship from Sargol, and they would be left in of the rich Koros trade—to be and by their superiors. Had they, Dane speculated, had any with Free Traders before—at least with the of such as the Solar Queen?
Van Rycke in his and then out his hand. On the a of metal. "Very interesting—" he repeated. "I shall this recording—"
The of that all from the Eysie faces. Grange's spread up from his tight collar, Kallee blinked, and the unknown third's hand to his sleep rod. An action which was not by either Dane or Ali.
"A set to you," Jellico gave the taking of the Service.
"You'd better—" the Eysie Captain hotly, and then the Van Rycke held—that of metal and plastic which was this for reference, he his mouth tight.
"Yes?" the Queen's Cargo-master politely. But Kallee had taken his Captain's arm and was Grange away from the spacer.
"You have until to lift," was Jellico's as the three in Company started toward the road.
"I don't think that they will," he added to Van Rycke.
The Cargo-master nodded. "You wouldn't in their place," he pointed out reasonably. "On the other hand they've had a of a blast they weren't expecting. It's been a long time since Grange anyone say 'no.'"
"A which is going to wear off," Jellico's of the force.
"This," Van Rycke the into his pouch, "sent them off a or two. Grange is not one of the arm boys. Suppose Tang Ya a little in—and maybe we can another if Grange try to ask of someone off world. In the meantime I don't think they are going to with the Salariki. They don't want to have to answer questions if we turn up a Patrol ship to ask them. So—" he and to Dane, "we shall go to work once more."
Again two Van Rycke Dane to the circle of the Salariki clansmen. They might have walked out only five or six minutes of ship time before, and the no particular in their return. But, Dane noted, there was only one empty stool, one table in evidence. The Salariki had only one Terran Trader to join them.
What was a of ceremony, an of and empty good and greetings. No one mentioned Koros stones—or perfume bark—that he was to offer the off-world traders. None so much as a of his cloth, under which, if he were to seriously, his hand would meet that of the buyer, so that by pressure alone they agree or on price. But such sessions were part of Trade and Dane, a of attention on the speeches and "drinkings-together," those around him with an which to and what he saw.
The of the Salariki was a independence. The only of government they would was a family-clan organization. Feuds and and were the way of life and every male who and for until he a "Speaker for the past"—too old to arms in the field. Due to the nature of their lives, of the Salariki that retirement. Short-lived families sometimes occurred, when they were to a common enemy than either. But a chieftains, a would that open in an instant. Only under the Trade Shield seven this way without their being at one another's throats.
An hour Paft his on his table, a move by every in the circle. The was at an end for that day. And as as Dane see it had nothing—except to the Eysies into the open. What had Traxt Cam which had him the with these aliens? Unless the men from the Queen learned it, they go on talking until the ran out and no than they had today.
From his Dane that with an did long and patient handling. But study and the himself there was a gulf, and he that he had much to learn he meet such a with Van Rycke's patience and aplomb. The Cargo-master in by his day and Dane that Van would up the night, going over for the hundredth time Traxt Cam's in another attempt to why and how the other Free Trader had succeeded where the Queen's men were up against a wall.
The of Koros was, as Dane and all those who had been from Cam's records knew, a job. Though the of the Salariki was on the land of Sargol, it was another in the world of the seas. There the Gorp were in of the and one had to be for attack from the sly, intelligence, so to the of Salariki and Terran that there was, or to be, no point of possible contact. One Koros after life against gain. And the Salariki did not see any profit in that operation. Yet Traxt Cam had his of gems—somehow he had managed to secure them in trade.
Van Rycke the ramp, on into the Queen as if he would not to his records soon enough. But Dane paused and looked at the a little wistfully. To his mind these early hours were the best time on Sargol. The light was golden, the night had not yet arisen. He the of the open for the of the spacer.
And, as he there, two of the population of Sargol came out of the forest. Between them they one of their nets, a which now a but captive—Sinbad being delivered for ransom. Dane was for the pay to give the when, to his astonishment, one of them and pointed with an to the open port.
"Go in," he the Trade Lingo with care. And Dane's must have been plain to read for the his speech with a and set one on the to his desire.
For one of the Salariki, who had their that Terrans and their ship were an to the of all right "men," to wish to enter the was an about-face. But any no how small, which might about a closer understanding, must be at once.
Dane the Sinbad and beckoned, than to touch the boy. "Come—"
Only one of the junior that invitation. The other watched, big-eyed, and then to the when his called out some suggestion. He was not going to be trapped.
Dane the way up the ramp, paying no visible attention to the Salarik, did he the other on when he for a long moment or two at the port. In his mind the Cargo-master was over the list of goods. What did they which would make a and gift for a small with such a promising of curiosity? If he had only time to Van Rycke!
The Salarik was the now, his spread, each and every odor in this place. Suddenly his as if by one of his own ropes. His had been by some his had detected. His met Dane's in appeal. Swiftly the Terran and then with a as the Salarik into the of the Queen, in of something of great importance.
