make out?" I asked when he had a drink in his hand.

"I left my usual deposit," he grinned, "but you ought to see Meadows!
Is he ever plugging their pipes! He ran Mercury to Pluto, and it paid
off big."

"It ought to; no one ever makes it."

"He did it _twice_! Plus other combinations. With him making out our
daily menus, I'll never know why I'm not lucky too. Know what he's
doing?"

I lifted an eyebrow.

"He's lending money to every loafer that puts the beam on him. But the
guy has to show a non-transferrable ticket for passage to Earth."

"Darn few can," I grunted.

"That's why he keeps sending them out with the price of one and the
promise to stake them when they get back. I never saw such
expressions!"

At that point, Jorgensen sailed through the curtained doorway between
the bar and back room. A craggy, desert look had settled on his red
moon-face. He introduced me to two men with him as if someone were
counting down from ten.

"Glad to meet you and Mr. Howlet," said the one called McNaughton.

I recognized "Mr. V'n Uh" as Van Etten, a leading citizen of the dome
who had been agitating with McNaughton and others of the Operating
Committee to form a regular police department. Jorgensen seemed to
have something else on his mind.

"Howlet, how about having a word with your shipmate?"

"What's he done wrong?" asked Howlet blandly.

Jorgensen scowled at a pair of baggy-seated sandeaters who strode
through the front door with pale green tickets clutched in their
hands. They sniffed once at the bar, but followed their stubbled chins
into the back room at max acc.

"I don't say it's wrong," growled Jorgensen, glaring after the pair.
"It just makes the place look bad."

"Oh, it's good advertising, Jorgy," laughed McNaughton. "People were
forgetting that game could be beaten. Now, Mr. Howlet--"

Jorgensen talked him under.

"It's not losing a little money that I mind--"

Some of the drink I was sneaking slipped down the wrong way.

"Well, it's _not_!" bellowed Jorgensen. "But if they all pick up the
broadcast that this is where to get a free ride home, I'll have just
another sand trap here."

Howlet shrugged and put down his glass. Van Etten nudged me and made a
face, so I got up first.

"Never mind," I said. "Being the one that took him in there, I'll
check."

Two more men came through the front door. The big one looked like a
bodyguard. The one with the dazed look carried a small metal case t