Four-Day Planet

r whatever. They'd given him a couple of injections and a sedative, and his system was throwing off the poison

sh went up to the editorial office. I didn't take a car. Hunters' Hall was only a half dozen blocks south of the Time

m the Peenemünde with a couple of girls, so I knew the ship wasn't leaving immediately. Going past the Municipal Building, I saw some activity, and an unusually large number of police gathered around the vehicle port. Ravick must have hi

nd jeeps and ships' boats grounded in and around it, and a crowd of men, almost all of them in boat-clothes and wearing whiskers, including quite a few characters who had never been out in a hunter-ship in t

nd solidigraphs of hunter-ships, photos of record-sized monsters lashed alongside ships before cutting-up, group pictures of ships's crews, monster tusks, dried slashers and

blond beard that's had thirty-five years' more growth. Oscar is skipper of the Pequod-he wouldn't have looked baffled if Bish Ware called him

's been telling me about Bish Ware shooting a t

en two stacks of wax as we came up. We never saw it till it was all ove

," Kivelson said. "He mi

s the planet's worst pistol shot, so accordin

ing," I said. "If he hadn't, we'd have been

engineer's helper. He wanted to know about the tread-snail shooting, so I had to go over it again. I hadn'

like Bish Ware shooting around me

ve, too. Joe

man's hand, one time, in One Eye Swanson's. Didn't scratch the guy; hit the bl

e drunk then

hand while he fired with the other." Then he

om nobody had ever heard before would be the center of so much interest in monster-hunting circles. I kept looking at my watch wh

al interview with Murell. Then Dad came on the screen with a record player

began explaining about how the price of wax had to be cut again, to thirty-five centisols a pound, the language those hunters used positively smelled. I noticed,

y to give us that stuff abo

e you going to

id. "We're not going to take his price cut. If he won't pay

l wax anywhere

we can't?"

anything else, Osc

'll carry us for a while and make loans on wax. But if the wax sto

e of them, and then drifted off in the direction of the bar, where I found another hunter captain, Mohandas Gandhi Feinberg, whom everybody simply called the Mahatma. He didn't resem

of their crews. It was a good scheme, though it would have sounded better if the man who was advocating it hadn't been a captain himself. At least, it would have disenfranchised all Ravick's perma

pt it on, circulating around and letting it listen to the conversations. The Ravick people were either saying nothing or arguing that Belsher was doing the best he could, and if Kapstaad w

sergeant-at-arms brassards were making everybody check their knives and pistols. They passed me by without getting my arsenal, which consisted of a sleep-gas

is life, were all sitting back of a big desk on a dais in front. After as many of the crowd who could had found seats and the rest, includi

hat aside for the moment. We have with us this evening our represent

e that applause was in order. A few of his zombies clapped t

ed. "What I have to tell you is

sn't!" somebody directly in fro

s a pound. This price is being scaled down to thirty-five centisols. I want you to understand that Kapstaad Chemical wants to give you every cent they

" somebody shouted. "We heard

ody else asked. "We do have a c

re-negotiated. They'll pay thirty-fi

ong without wax. Or try

derful syntheti

nization reject the price of thirty-five centisols a pound for ta

Oscar was out of order, th

jisawa's motion," Mo

" Tom Kivelson declared. "He's our hired employee, and as soon as this present

on said. "I move that the motion, as amended, read, '-a

!" Belsher al

hich he and Ravick had been reducing u

making a small fuss. I unhooked the

ea

fast as you can," he said. "I just got a tip from one of my ... my parishioners. Ravick's going

d as I did I could hea

price on Terra that it did eight years ago, when you two crooks started cutting the pric

ujisawa. I decided the truth would need a little ed

k's boys are going to fake a riot and Hallstock's cops are going to raid the me

arrest. You sure this

ody jumped to his feet

hed lie, you etaoin shrdlu

uch-and-such?" somebody else yelled back, and a couple

Oscar decide

e more of the Javelin crew were clumped. I got one of the rolls of quarter

ped him behind the ear with a fist full of money, and down he went. Oscar, who must have eyes in the back of his head, turned and grabbed the hose out of his hand before he dropped it, using it to clout somebody in front of him. Somebody else ca

and Joe Kivelson. Osca

. "Hallstock's Gestapo are on the way. Th

him. "I never chickened

like a Zarathustra veldtbeest; the only

them?" Oscar asked him. "That's what'll happen if the cops catch you. No

s knuckles. Joe went down a couple of feet, bending at the knees, and caught this fellow around the hips with both hands, straightening and

Oscar shouted. "Come on

by the elevators. There were a couple of Ravick's men, with sergeant-at-arms arm bands, and two city cops. One of the latter got in Joe's way. J

rters come loose in my hand. Before I could drop them into my jacket pocket and get out the other roll, one of the sergeants at a

the elevators and crowded in behind him, and as I turned to start it down I could hear police sirens from the street and also from the landing stage above. In the hall outside the meeting room, four or five of Ravick's free-drink mercenaries were do

rning you now to the regul

the car started down and the doors closed I

aid. "I have Joe and Tom and Oscar Fujisawa and a few of the

on the catwalk on the right," Bish

ll be looki

it down another level. Joe Kivelson, who was dabbing at his chee

up," I told him. "Veh

arguments if I didn't me