Worlds of IF (January 1964) (Modified) by Galaxy Publishing Corporation

Author:Galaxy Publishing Corporation
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: tozzo, fermeti, anderson, poul, mack, anaka, gilly, paker, robot, poul anderson, slime mold, twentieth century, van vogt, three worlds, sir francis, science fiction, night flight, mid twentieth, francis drake
Published: 1964-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

returned Cards. “I swear, I don’t know how she holds air out in space any more. Can’t you keep away from these stone canal walls?”

“I have to dodge the sand dunes.”

The other art dealer member of the car pool, a half-breed Indian named Teepee McGuzzle interposed sadly, “This sure is a dry place.”

“I hope those worms haven’t got anything to make it wetter for you either,” said Howard. “All we need is to have you on another roaring toot.”

“You can’t roar when you toot,” pointed out Teepee with some justification.

“You make a mighty fine try at it,” said Jock.

“It was dirty of you fellows to thieve away my grog at the space port,” mourned Teepee. “People are so undercover any more that a fellow doesn’t know what to think. Twenty years ago if people wanted to be dishonest they did it out in the open, where you could see them. Nowadays people are so sneaky you can hardly tell what they are doing

— even if you watch them.”

“You should have stayed on the

reservation,” advised Cards.

“If I had stayed on the Seminole reservation we wouldn’t have this space car pool and be saving oodles of travel expense, because I’m the one who got the idea in the first place,” said Teepee.

“Here’s the town we’re looking for

— Erlanger,” interjected Howard as a hundred half-oval, white porcelain structures loomed up in the early morning dust.

A few minutes later they were

conferring with The Hell Of A Long One — or rather, Cards was. Ignoring his business as a porcelain art dealer, he drew a deck of cards from his pocket and proceeded to explain the principles of stud poker to the worm. The other art dealers were unable to get in a word. Novice Howard wandered into another room of the ovular structure and snooped where he did not belong. Teepee went hunting for alcohol. Jock dozed in a corner.

T he two disasters happened together. Just as Cards Wartson got to owing far more than he could pay, the worms heard a crash in the next room. Rushing in, they discovered the broken clay records. Jock awoke at Teepee’s urgent nudging.

“Come on, we gotta get outa here!”

“What’s going on?”

“Cards owes them a pot of money and Nosey broke something. They are going to kill both of them! Let’s get out of here before they grab us!” “Why should they grab us? We haven’t done anything.”

“Wait until they find out I drank up all their moss squeezing!”

“Good God!” said Jock, running for the door. The two men did not stop running until they were safely locked in the space car.

“Well, let’s get back to the space port,” urged Teepee when they had got their breath.

“What for?” asked Jock, surprised. “To get some weapons. Rescue Cards and Nosey.”

“We don’t need any weapons at all to whip those monsters.”

THE CAR POOL

97

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.