It was a picture of Langley and another. I gave it to Jon. "His wife,"
I said. "His real wife. I am sure of it, for you will note the
inscription on the bottom."
"Then Vera--?"
"Is not his wife. You wonder that he was camera shy?"
"Housebreaker!" roared Langley. "It's a plot; a dirty, reactionary
plot!"
"It is what is called blackmail," I said. I turned to Jon. "I am
correct about this?"
"You are." Jon said.
"You are instructed to leave Phobos," I said to Langley, "and you will
allow my friend here to keep his job as peace officer, for without it
he would be lost. I have observed that in these things the Builders
are hardly more adaptable than their children, the metal people. You
will do all this, and in return, we will not send the picture that Jon
took today to your wife, nor otherwise inform her of your
transgression. For I am told that this is a transgression."
"It is indeed," agreed Jon gravely. "Right, Langley?"
"All right," Langley snarled. "You win. And the sooner I get out of
this hole the better." He got up to go, squeezing his fat form through
the door into the bar, past the gaping miners and the metal people,
heedless of the metal people. We watched him go with some
satisfaction.
"It is no business of mine," I said to Jon, "but I have seen you look
with longing upon the she that was not Langley's wife. Since she does
not belong to him, there is nothing to prevent you from having her.
Should not that make you happy?"
"Are you kidding?" he snarled.
Which proves that I have still much to learn about his race.
Out front, Langley spied his metal servant, MS-33, just as he was
going out the door. He turned to him. "What are you doing here?" he
asked suspiciously.
MS-33 made no answer. He stared malevolently at the bar, ignoring
Langley.
"Come on here, damn you!" Langley said. MS-33 said nothing. Langley
went over to him and roared foul things into his earphones that would
corrode one's soul, if one had one. I shall never forget that moment.
The screaming, red-faced Langley, the laughing miners.
But he got no reply from MS-33. Not then or ever. And this was
scarcely strange, for I had removed his fuse.