ff
duty. It'd be a trifle longer if we didn't happen to have an empty bag
at the moment. But never very long. Even running under thrust the
whole distance, Jupe's a good ways off. They've no time to waste."

"When is the next ship due?"

"The _Pallas Castle_ is expected in the second watch from now."

"Second watch. I see." Warburton stalked on with a brooding expression
on his Puritan face.

* * * * *

Blades might have speculated about that, but someone asked him why the
Station depended on spin for weight. Why not put in an internal field
generator, like a ship? Blades explained patiently that an Emett large
enough to produce uniform pull through a volume as big as the Sword
was rather expensive. "Eventually, when we're a few megabucks ahead of
the game--"

"Do you really expect to become rich?" Ellen asked. Her tone was awed.
No Earthsider had that chance any more, except for the great
corporations. "_Individually_ rich?"

"We can't fail to. I tell you, this is a frontier like nothing since
the Conquistadores. We could very easily have been wiped out in the
first couple of years--financially or physically--by any of a thousand
accidents. But now we're too far along for that. We've got it made,
Jimmy and I."

"What will you do with your wealth?"

"Live like an old-time sultan," Blades grinned. Then, because it was
true as well as because he wanted to shine in her eyes: "Mostly,
though, we'll go on to new things. There's so much that needs to be
done. Not simply more asteroid mines. We need farms; timber; parks;
passenger and cargo liners; every sort of machine. I'd like to try
getting at some of that water frozen in the Saturnian System.
Altogether, I see no end to the jobs. It's no good our depending on
Earth for anything. Too expensive, too chancy. The Belt has to be made
completely self-sufficient."

"With a nice rakeoff for Sword Enterprises," Gilbertson scoffed.

"Why, sure. Aren't we entitled to some return?"

"Yes. But not so out of proportion as the Belt companies seem to
expect. They're only using natural resources that rightly belong to
the people, and the accumulated skills and wealth of an entire
society."

"Huh! The People didn't do anything with the Sword. Jimmy and I and
our boys did. No Society was around here grubbing nickel-iron and
riding out gravel storms; we were."

"Let's leave politics alone," Warburton snapped. But it was mostly
Ellen's look o