lightful, but you do something to me I'd forgotten could be done.
And maybe I'll change my mind even if you don't have the price. I
think I'll kiss you. Big Ed is still a louse, and not only in the
ring. He thinks he can out-wrestle me but I know all the nasty holds.
I play for keeps or not at all. Keep away from me, kid."

Denver's imagination had caught fire. Under the combined stimuli of
Darbor and Snowgrape Champagne, he seemed to ascend to some high,
rarified, alien dimension where life became serene and uncomplicated.
A place where one ate and slept and made fortunes and love, and only
the love was vital. He smoldered.

"Play me for keeps," he urged.

"Maybe I will," Darbor answered clearly. She was feeling the champagne
too, but not as exaltedly as Denver who was not used to such potent
vintages as Darbor and SG-Mars, 2028. "Maybe I will, kid, but ask me
after the Martian workings work out."

"Don't think I won't," he promised eagerly. "Want to dance?"

Her face lighted up. She started to her feet, then sank back.

"Better not," she murmured. "Big Ed doesn't like other men to come
near me. He's big, bad and jealous. He may be here tonight. Don't push
your luck, kid. I'm trouble, bad trouble."

Denver snapped his fingers drunkenly. "That for Big Ed. I eat
trouble."

Her eyes were twin pools of darkness. They widened as ripples of alarm
spread through them. "Start eating," she said. "Here it comes!"

Big Ed Caltis stood behind Denver's chair.

III

Tod Denver turned. "Hello, Rubber-face," he said pleasantly. "Sit down
and have a drink. You're paying for it."

Big Ed Caltis turned apoplectic purple but he sat down. A waitress
hustled up another glass. Silence in the room. Every eye focused upon
the table where Big Ed Caltis sat and stared blindly at his uninvited
guest.

Skilfully, Denver poured sparkling liquid against the inside curve of
the third glass. With exaggerated care, he refilled his own and the
girl's. He shoved the odd glass toward Big Ed with a careless gesture
that was not defiance but held a hint of something cold and deadly
and menacing.

"Drink hearty, champ," he suggested. "You'll need strength and Dutch
courage to hear some of the things I've wanted to tell you. I've been
holding them for a long time. This is it."

Big Ed nodded slowly, ponderously. "I'm listening."

Denver began a long bill of particulars against Big Ed Caltis of
Crystal City. He omitted little, though som