Sam nodded. "I see what you mean," he replied.
"Shall I take your bag to your stateroom?" the spaceman asked.
"I'd be much obliged," Sam answered. "Is there a barber on this tub? I
want to get rid of this mop as soon as I can."
"Yes sir," the spaceman said. "But wouldn't you like to go to your
cabin first?"
Sam smiled. "No. I've been dreaming about this haircut for ages. Just
tell me where my cabin is and take me to the barber shop!"
The spaceman nodded and picked up Sam's bag. Sam followed him down the
companionway to the barber shop.
"Your stateroom is L-14, sir," the spaceman said. "It's the last cabin
on the left at the end of this companionway."
"Thank you," Sam replied as he stepped into the shop.
The barber closed the book he was reading and jumped up. "Yes sir. What
can--" He broke off in mid-sentence and gawked stupidly.
"I don't want a manicure," Sam chuckled as he slid into the chair.
The barber smiled sickly. "Ah--no, of course not," he agreed. He busied
himself bundling Sam up in a transparent apron and then stepped back to
view his client artistically. "Shall--I take--a little off the top?" he
asked, hesitantly.
"Cut it off!" Sam snorted. "I want to look human again!"
The barber set to work chopping off great chunks of hair. Several times
he opened his mouth to say something but the situation seemed to him
beyond the range of normal conversation.
"I bet you're wondering how I got like this," Sam chuckled.
"Why--yes," the barber murmured. "That thought did occur to me. Ah--I
don't suppose--ah--there are many barbers where you come from."
"That's the funny part of it," Sam replied. "We used to have a barber,
a darn good one, too. Yup, he was one of the best in the business. I
guess that was Roy's trouble. He was too good."
"But--but--how?" the barber interrupted.
"The hair?" Sam asked. "I was coming to that. It all started three
years ago when we first landed on Procyon IV. A meteorite had plowed
in there some time in the past and that was what we were after. The
original survey had found fragments of nearly pure iridium in a crater
and you know how hard that stuff is to get. The survey figured that the
whole meteorite was composed of iridium and, as it turned out, they
were right."
"Mr. Thurwinker, the government agent," Sam continued, "started out
right away dickering with the natives. It wasn't too hard to do cause
they look a lot like us, considering what most of the inhabitants of
other planets look like. Anyway, Thurwinker traded off half a ship load
of gew-gaws and we got the crater.
"Our supplies started coming in and on the first ship was Roy, the
barber. We built up a little town, the typical mining settlement, and
got things pretty much underway. It took us about two months to get our
soundings all lined up and then we found that the meteorite had struck
the planet at quite an angle. It hadn't gone too far down but it had
gone so far to one side that the thing was completely outside the
crater. Mr. Thurwinker tried to bargain with the natives for the ground
directly over the meteorite, but he didn't get very far. They didn't
like him much and I can't say as I blame them. The natives let him know
that they wanted to be left alone so we stayed in our little town.
"Well, there wasn't much of anything to do, so most of us just sat
around, waiting for Thurwinker to make some kind of a bargain. He
finally persuaded the Chief of the natives to talk the situation over
with him."
* * * * *
Goma growled deeply in his barrel chest. "You have land. Why want you
more?"
Thurwinker hesitated, trying to phrase the proper answer in Goma's
language. "This land not good," he said, pointing to the crater. Then
turning, "this land, good. We want good land."
"You cannot have land," Goma replied with classic simplicity.
"I gave you many things for bad land," Thurwinker answered. "I will
give you more for good land."
"I not want things," Goma stated. "I keep land."
Thurwinker reverted to English. "My stars! How does the government
expect me to bargain with creatures like this! Sometimes I think I was
better off in the office. Yes indeed, much better off."