"That'll be two-fifty."
Toryl raised his glass as though making a toast. "Two-fif-ty!" he
repeated.
Okie caught his arm and brought the glass down.
"Two-fifty!" the barkeep said with grim insistence.
Sartan pursed his lips comprehendingly. He removed a large pentagonal
piece of metal from his pocket and gave it to Okie.
Okie took the piece between his fingers, examined it and frowned. "I
give up. What is it?"
Sartan had to glance at Toryl for an answer. Toryl threw a switch on the
crypterpreter.
"_Money_," Toryl silently advised him.
"Money," said Sartan to Okie.
"You guys hold on and don't drink up yet," growled the barkeep. He then
yelled in the direction of the blackjack table. "Hey, Nugget! Get on
over here, I need you!!"
A wiry little man with a full, unkempt beard, hustled over to the bar.
"Nugget McDermott at yer service, Okie! What's yer pleasure?" he asked
with a sunny smile.
"Take a look at this." Okie handed him the piece of metal.
The old prospector turned it over in his hands, bit it and then held it
in his palm as though to judge its weight. His expert opinion was, "It's
gold, Okie," and was uttered without a shred of modesty.
"Are you sure?"
The old-timer was highly insulted. "Am I sure!! Why you lop-eared,
sun-stroked jackass, of course I'm sure!!! Nugget McDermott is drawed to
gold like nails to a magnet! Why when this here town was nothin' but a
patch of cactus--"
"All right, all right," Okie waved him off, "don't get your gander up!
Go on back to the blackjack table and tell Sam to give you a drink on
the house."
"Much obliged, Okie, much obliged," said Nugget, doffing his hat and
trotting back to the blackjack table.
The barkeep's face was pure sunshine when he turned to the aliens again.
"Gentlemen, with this kind of a substitute you don't need money in my
place. Drink up!"
"Thank you ex-ceed-ing-ly," said Sartan.
Okie arbitrarily judged the gold piece to be worth ten dollars. "The
management invites you to try your luck, gentlemen. Go on give it a
whirl."
Toryl and Sartan wore blank expressions as Okie slapped seven dollars
and fifty cents change on the bar--four silver dollars, four
half-dollars and six quarters.
"Don't be bashful, gentlemen. Okie's machines are friendly to one and
all," said the barkeep.
* * * * *
Toryl removed the change and gave his companion two silver dollars, two
half-dollars and three quarters.
"_What is the purpose of the machines?_" thought Sartan as they
approached the one-armed bandits.
"_I suppose that is what the one called Okie wishes us to learn._"
"_Perhaps it is some type of registration machine._"
"_It is doubtful. The gentleman you disturbed has been at the same
machine since we arrived._"
Sartan gripped the handle of a vacant machine. "_Do you think it might
be a kind of intelligence test?_"
In lieu of an answer Toryl focused his attention on a small card, above
the machine, which gave the winning combinations.
"_There is that term again._"
"_What term?_"
"_Gambling._" Toryl pointed to a line on the card warning minors not to
gamble. A look of perplexity fell upon his face. "_I am no longer sure
the term has anything to do with fraternizing_," he observed mentally.
"_Let us find out._"
Sartan placed a quarter in the coin slot. The three little wheels went
spinning. Cherry. Lemon. Lemon.
Nothing.
Toryl and Sartan looked at each other, their faces blanker than ever.
"_Try it again._"
Sartan disposed of another quarter. They waited. Lemon. Plum. Plum.
Nothing.
Toryl inspected the machine from every angle, like a man on the outside
trying to figure a way in. "_Let me try it._"
He put a quarter in the slot.
Three lemons.
"_It isn't very interesting, is it?_" thought Sartan.
"_Why don't we try the larger pieces?_"
"_A splendid idea, Brother._"
The larger coins did not fit. Toryl proceeded to report this sad state
of affairs to Okie and was amazed when, for the eight large coins, Okie
rewarded him with twenty-four smaller ones. He went back to his
companion at the one-armed bandit.
They then dropped twenty consecutive quarters into the appropriately
named machine without getting so much as a single quarter in return.
"_It is puzzling, is it not, Brother?_"
"_Yes, Sartan. From all indications it would seem to be a machine
totally without purpose._"
"_It does consume money._"
"_But why would one build a machine whose sole purpose is to consume
money?_"