"Six months."
"When's that ship due?"
"In six months more."
"How long?" This was to Betty.
"Five months and twenty-three days, to be exact," she told him. "Earth
time."
He cursed again. I was sweating. The way Betty was following my lead,
she must think I had a plan. Maybe I did, at that. It was pretty hazy,
but the way Stony kept worrying about a ship made me think. That, and
the wobbly jet I had seen.
"Six months, huh?" he mused. "Well, we can wait. It won't be bad. Not
with the company we'll have." He put one of his big shovel-shaped hands
on Betty. "No, not bad at all."
I jerked one elbow loose and swung at his jaw. I might have done better
if it hadn't been for the ribs, but as it was I felt it all the way up
to my shoulder. His head snapped back but his feet never moved. The two
gunsels grabbed my hands and twisted them up under my shoulder blades.
* * * * *
Old Stony stood for a minute rubbing his jaw and looking at me. Just
looking. It was a look like you might see in the eye of a snake. Then
he hit me in the cheek with the flat of his hand. It wasn't a slap. I
tasted blood. He swung his foot at my ankles, and I hit the floor. He
swung it again. I felt another rib let go.
"Pick him up," he said. "Tie him in that chair." His boys did as they
were told.
He came and stood in front of me. "I told you this wasn't no game of
marbles. Now look, chum. You're going to be a good boy and keep your
trap shut and do like I tell you or I'm going to take you apart. That's
going to be fun, too, only not for you." I didn't say anything.
Stoneface ground around on his heel and began grating out orders.
"Slats and Joker, you tie up the girl till I decide what to do with
her. Tubby, see what they've got to eat in this shack. Trigger--back to
the ship and tell the boys we'll relieve them in an hour and they're to
keep their eyes open in the meantime. Bring back a couple of bottles of
juice with you. Karns, you keep a rod on this monkey in case he didn't
understand what I told him."
In a few minutes they were all sitting around the mess table washing
down about a week's supply of Expedition rations with raw juice. When
they had finished Stony belched vigorously, stood up, and walked over
to look out of one of the portholes. I followed him with my eyes, and
was surprised to see that it was night outside. I hadn't realized how
short these six-hour days would be. Stony began talking again.
"Slats, you and Karns get back to the ship and let the other boys come
over here and stretch their legs and get some chow. After that we all
got to get busy and ditch the ship and set up the artillery on the
ground to get ready for that Patrol boat when it shows up. Me, I got
some other business on hand."
He walked over to Betty and picked her up under one arm, chair and all.
"Put the girl down!" I told him.
He set her down on the deck again and came at me, balling up one of his
cobblestone fists. "I said I was going to take you apart if you didn't
act nice," he snarled. "Well, here goes!"
"Wait a minute," I said. "I know what you want and I know where to get
it."
That stopped him. "What do you mean?" he growled.
"I mean a new power slug. I saw how sloppy your jet was when you came
in. You haven't got one G-hour left. You might take off from a little
rock like this, but you'd never make Venus again and you know it.
That's why you're willing to wait around here for six months on the
slim chance of being able to shoot down a Patrol cruiser and salvage a
slug out of it."
He blinked when I mentioned Venus, but I didn't let him see I noticed
it. My mind was beginning to click now. This wasn't the way I would
have preferred to handle the matter, but I didn't see anything else to
do.