know. And I've paid her the pay we owe you from the
time you began using your badge. She's out shopping!"

The car pulled up to the waiting rocket, and the Security man helped him
up the steps with a perfunctory wish for good luck. Then Bruce Gordon
stopped as great arms surrounded him.

Mother Corey was immaculate, though not much prettier. But his old eyes
were glinting. "Did you think we'd let you go without seeing you off,
cobber?" he asked. "And after I took a _bath_ to celebrate? I--I--Oh,
drat it, I'm getting old. Izzy, you tell him."

He grabbed Gordon's hand and waddled down the landing plank. Izzy shook
his head.

"I can't say it, either, gov'nor--but some day, I'm going to have one of
those badges myself. Like I always said, honesty sure pays, even if it
kills you. Here!"

He followed Mother Corey, leaving behind his favorite knife and a
brand-new deck of reader cards, marked exactly as the ones Gordon had
first used.

Gordon dropped into his seat, while the sounds outside indicated
take-off time. He had less than a hundred credits, a knife, a deck of
phony cards, and a yellow ticket. Mars was leaving him what he'd
brought....

She dropped into the seat very quietly, but her blouse touched his arm.
In her hand was a punched ticket with the orange of Mars on top and the
black of Mercury on the bottom.

"Hello, Bruce," Sheila said softly. "I've been shopping and I spent the
money the man gave me. This is all I have left. Do you think it's worth
it? Or should I take it back?"

He turned it over in his hands slowly, and the smile came back to his
face gradually.

"You got a bargain, Cuddles," he said. "A lot better than the meal
ticket you bought. Let's keep it."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Police Your Planet, by Lester del Rey

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