«Now here, patrons, if you please – we have an exceptionally promising man. I hardly dare tell you the ratings he received on his intelligence, adaptability, and general information tests. In fact I won't, except to tell you that Administration has put in a protective offer of a thousand credits. But it would be a shame to use any such client for the routine work of administration when we need good men so badly to wrest wealth from the wilderness. I venture to predict that the lucky bidder who obtains the services of this client will be using him as a foreman within a month. But look him over for yourselves, talk to him, and see for yourselves.»
The clerk whispered something to the speaker. He nodded and added, «I am required to notify you, gentlemen and patrons, that this client has given the usual legal notice of two weeks, subject of course to liens of record.» He laughed jovially, and cocked one eyebrow as if there were some huge joke behind his remarks. No one paid attention to the announcement; to a limited extent Wingate appreciated wryly the nature of the jest. He had given notice the day after he found out that Jones had been sent to South Pole Colony, and had discovered that while he was free theoretically to quit, it was freedom to starve on Venus, unless he first worked out his bounty, and his passage both ways.
Several of the patrons gathered around the platform and looked him over, discussing him as they did so. «Not too well muscled.» «I'm not overeager to bid on these smart boys; they're trouble-makers.» «No, but a stupid client isn't worth his keep.» «What can he do? I'm going to have a look at his record.» They drifted over to the clerk's desk and scrutinized the results of the many tests and examinations that Wingate had undergone during his period of quarantine. All but one beady-eyed individual who sidled up closer to Wingate, and, resting one foot on the platform so that he could bring his face nearer, spoke in confidential tones.
«I'm not interested in those phony puff-sheets, bub. Tell me about yourself.»
«There's not much to tell.»
«Loosen up. You'll like my place. Just like a home – I run a free crock to Venusburg for my boys. Had any experience handling niggers?»
«No.»
«Well, the natives ain't niggers anyhow, except in a manner of speaking. You look like you could boss a gang. Had any experience?»
«Not much.»
«Well ... maybe you're modest. I like a man who keeps his mouth shut. And my boys like me. I never let my pusher take kickbacks.»
«No,» put in another patron who had returned to the side of the platform, «you save that for yourself, Rigsbee.»
«You stay out o' this, Van Huysen!»
The newcomer, a heavy-set, middle-aged man, ignored the other and addressed Wingate himself. «You have given notice. Why?»
«The whole thing was a mistake. I was drunk.»
«Will you do honest work in the meantime?»
Wingate considered this. «Yes,» he said finally. The heavy-set man nodded and walked heavily back to his chair, settling his broad girth with care and giving his harness a hitch.
When the others were seated the spokesman announced cheerfully, «Now, gentlemen, if you are quite through – Let's hear an opening offer for this contract. I wish I could afford to bid him in as my assistant, by George, I do! Now ... do I hear an offer?» «Six hundred.»
«Please, patrons! Did you not hear me mention a protection of one thousand?»
«I don't think you mean it. He's a sleeper.» The company agent raised his eyebrows. «I'm sorry. I'll have to ask the client to step down from the platform.»
But before Wingate could do so another voice said, «One thousand.»
«Now that's better!» exclaimed the agent. «I should have known that you gentlemen wouldn't let a real opportunity escape you. But a ship can't fly on one jet. Do I hear eleven hundred? Come, patrons, you can't make your fortunes without clients. Do I hear – « «Eleven hundred.»
«Eleven hundred from Patron Rigsbee! And a bargain it would be at that price. But I doubt if you will get it. Do I hear twelve?»
The heavy-set man flicked a thumb upward. «Twelve hundred from Patron van Huysen. I see I've made a mistake and am wasting your time; the intervals should be not less than two hundred. Do I hear fourteen? Do I hear fourteen? Going once for twelve ... going twi – »
«Fourteen,» Rigsbee said sullenly.
«Seventeen,» Van Huysen added at once.
«Eighteen,» snapped Rigsbee.
«Nooo,» said the agent, «no interval of less than two, please.»
«All right, dammit, nineteen!»
«Nineteen I hear. It's a hard number to write; who'll make it twenty-one?» Van Huysen's thumb nicked again. «Twenty-one it is. It takes money to make money. What do I hear? What do I hear?» He paused. «Going once for twenty-one ... going twice for twenty-one. Are you giving up so easily, Patron Rigsbee?»
«Van Huysen is a – « The rest was muttered too indistinctly to hear.
«One more chance, gentlemen. Going, going, ... GONE! – « He smacked his palms sharply together. « – and sold to Patron van Huysen for twenty-one hundred credits. My congratulations, sir, on a shrewd deal.»
Wingate followed his new master out the far door. They were stopped in the passageway by Rigsbee. «All right, Van, you've had your fun. I'll cut your losses for two thousand.»
«Out of my way.»
«Don't be a fool. He's no bargain. You don't know how to sweat a man – I do.» Van Huysen ignored him, pushing on past. Wingate followed him out into warm winter drizzle to the parking lot where steel crocodiles were drawn up in parallel rows. Van Huysen paused beside a thirty-foot Remington. «Get in.»
The long boxlike body of the crock was stowed to its load line with supplies Van Huysen had purchased at the base. Sprawled on the tarpaulin which covered the cargo were half a dozen men. One of them stirred as Wingate climbed over the side. «Hump! Oh, Hump!»
It was Hartley. Wingate was surprised at his own surge of emotion. He gripped Hartley's hand and exchanged friendly insults. «Chums,» said Hartley, «meet Hump Wingate. He's a right guy. Hump, meet the gang. That's Jimmie right behind you. He rassles this velocipede.»
The man designated gave Wingate a bright nod and moved forward into the operator's seat. At a wave from Van Huysen, who had seated his bulk in the little sheltered cabin aft, he pulled back on both control levers and the crocodile crawled away, its caterpillar treads clanking and chunking through the mud.
Three of the six were old-timers, including Jimmie, the driver. They had come along to handle cargo, the ranch products which the patron had brought in to market and the supplies he had purchased to take back. Van Huysen had bought the contracts of two other clients in addition to Wingate and Satchel Hartley. Wingate recognized them as men he had known casually in the Evening Star and at the assignment and conditioning station. They looked a little woebegone, which Wingate could thoroughly understand, but the men from the ranch seemed to be enjoying themselves. They appeared to regard the opportunity to ride a load to and from town as an outing. They sprawled on the tarpaulin and passed the time gossiping and getting acquainted with the new chums.
But they asked no personal questions. No labor client on Venus was ever asked anything about what he had been before he shipped with the company unless he first volunteered information. It «wasn't done.»
Shortly after leaving the outskirts of Adonis the car slithered down a sloping piece of ground, teetered over a low bank, and splashed logily into water. Van Huysen threw up a window in the bulkhead which separated the cabin from the hold and shouted, «Dumkopf! How many times do I tell you to take those launchings slowly?»
«Sorry, Boss,» Jimmie answered. «I missed it.»
«You keep your eyes peeled, or I get me a new crocker!» He slammed the port. Jimmie glanced around and gave the other clients a sly wink. He had his hands full; the marsh they were traversing looked like solid ground, so heavily was it overgrown with rank vegetation. The crocodile now functioned as a boat, the broad flanges of the treads acting as paddle wheels. The wedge-shaped prow pushed shrubs and marsh grass aside, or struck and ground down small trees. Occasionally the lugs would bite into the mud of a shoal bottom, and, crawling over a bar, return temporarily to the status of a land vehicle. Jimmie's slender, nervous hands moved constantly over the controls, avoiding large trees and continually seeking the easiest, most nearly direct route, while he split his attention between the terrain and the craft's compass.