"I said, 'tell me'!"
"Very well." The old man sighed. "You would hear, after all. You
remember the frontier town of Lhi?"
"Remember it!" Campbell's white teeth flashed. "Every dirty stone in
it, from the pumping conduits on up. Best place on three planets to
fence the hot stuff."
He broke off, suddenly embarrassed. The Kraylen said gently,
"That is your affair, my son. You've been away a long time. Lhi has
changed. The Terra-Venusian Coalition Government has taken it for the
administration center of Tehara Province."
Campbell's eyes, at mention of the Coalition Government, acquired a
hot, hard brightness. He said, "Go on."
The old man's face was cut from marble, his voice stiff and distant.
"There have been men in the swamps. Now word has been sent us. It seems
there is coal here, and oil, and certain minerals that men prize. They
will drain the swamps for many miles, and work them."
Campbell let smoke out of his lungs, very slowly. "Yeah? And what
becomes of you?"
The Kraylen turned away and stood framed in the indigo square of the
doorway. The distant drum sobbed and shouted. It was hot, and yet the
sweat turned cold on Campbell's body.
The old man's voice was distant and throbbing and full of anger, like
the drum. Campbell had to strain to hear it.
"They will take us and place us in camps in the great cities. Small
groups of us, so that we are divided and split. Many people will pay to
see us, the strange remnants of old Venus. They will pay for our skills
in the curing of _leshen_-skins and the writing of quaint music, and
tattooing. We will grow rich."
Campbell dropped the cigarette and ground it on the dirt floor. Knotted
veins stood out on his forehead, and his face was cruel. The old man
whispered:
"_We will die first._"
* * * * *
It was a long time since anyone had spoken. The drumming had stopped,
but the echo of it throbbed in Campbell's pulses. He looked at his
spread, sinewy hands on his knees and swallowed because the veins of
his neck were swollen and hurting.