In the booth, Magnan's agitated face stared a Retief.
"Retief, Mr. Leatherwell's in a towering rage! The deposit on 2645-P;
it was merely a surface film, barely a few inches thick! The entire
deposit wouldn't fill an ore-boat." A horrified expression dawned on
Magnan's face. "Retief," he gasped, "what did you do with the impounded
ore-carrier?"
"Well, let me see," Retief said. "According to the Space Navigation
Code, a body in orbit within twenty miles of any inhabited airless body
constitutes a navigational hazard. Accordingly, I had it towed away."
"And the cargo?"
"Well, accelerating all that mass was an expensive business, so to save
the taxpayer's credits, I had it dumped."
"Where?" Magnan croaked.
"On some unimportant asteroid--as specified by Regulations." He smiled
blandly at Magnan. Magnan looked back numbly.
"But you said--"
"All I said was that there was what looked like a valuable deposit on
2645-P. It turned out to be a bogus gold mine that somebody had rigged
up in a hurry. Curious, eh?"
"But you told me--"
"And you told Mr. Leatherwell. Indiscreet of you, Mr. Consul. That was
a privileged communication; classified information, official use only."
"You led me to believe there was collapsed crystal!"
"I said Sam had mentioned it. He told me his asteroid was made of the
stuff."
Magnan swallowed hard, twice. "By the way," he said dully. "You were
right about the check. Half an hour ago Mr. Leatherwell tried to stop
payment. He was too late."
"All in all, it's been a big day for Leatherwell," Retief said.
"Anything else?"
"I hope not," Magnan said. "I sincerely hope not." He leaned close to
the screen. "You'll consider the entire affair as ... confidential?
There's no point in unduly complicating relationships."
"Have no fear, Mr. Consul," Retief said cheerfully. "You won't find me
identifying with anything as specific as triple-salting an asteroid."
Back at the table, Sam called for another bottle of rock juice.
"That Drift's a pretty good game," Retief said. "But let me show you
one I learned out on Yill...."
[Transcriber's Note: No Section II heading in original text.]