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Consequently they had produced and forced upon the reluctant Van Rycke the Koros collection of their order, with instructions that it be sold on Terra and the price returned to them in the precious seeds and plants. In vain the Cargo-master and Captain had pointed out that Galactic trade was a chancy thing at the best, that accident might prevent return of the Queen to Sargol.
Jellico began and then throttled down the temper he could put under iron control when and if it were necessary. "Very well, tell them to stay where they are. Van, we'll go down " For a moment the Cargo-master hesitated, his heavy-lidded eyes looked sleepy, he seemed almost disinterested in the suggestion. And when he nodded it was with the air of someone about to perform some boring duty.
Compared to a bleak sentence at the moon mines such demotion was absolutely nothing and he knew that Van Rycke was breaking the worst news first. "You also forfeit all pay for this voyage," the Cargo-master was continuing. But Jellico broke in. "Board fine?" At the Cargo-master's nod, Jellico added. "Ship pays that." "So I told them," Van Rycke agreed.
Having heard of what awaited them without, the men of the Queen were more content to be incarcerated in the quarantine section. But as time wore on and the Cargo-master did not return, their anxieties awoke. They were fairly sure by now that any penalty the Patrol or the Terrapolice would impose would not be too drastic.
The Cargo-master seemed in nowise tired by his wasted day and Dane knew that Van would probably sit up half the night, going over for the hundredth time Traxt Cam's sketchy recordings in another painstaking attempt to discover why and how the other Free Trader had succeeded where the Queen's men were up against a stone wall.
The Cargo-master didn't approve. So there must have been another way to achieve their ends one the younger members of the crew had been too inexperienced or too dense to see "If we blasted off today we might just make cargo contract." Dane started. That was it! The point they had lost sight of during their struggles to get aid.
Dane led the way up the ramp, paying no visible attention to the young Salarik, nor did he urge the other on when he lingered for a long moment or two at the port. In his mind the Cargo-master apprentice was feverishly running over the list of general trade goods. What did they carry which would make a suitable and intriguing gift for a small alien with such a promising bump of curiosity?
It remains that they are going to get for themselves the Sargolian contract unless " He stopped short, staring straight ahead of him at the wall between Rip and Dane. And his assistant knew that Van was exploring a fresh idea. Van's ideas were never to be despised and Jellico did not now disturb the Cargo-master with questions. It was Rip who spoke next and directly to the Captain.
"Who's your champion?" he asked Kallee. The Eysie Cargo-master was grinning. He was confident he had pushed them into a position from which they could not extricate themselves. "You accept challenge?" he countered. Jellico merely repeated his question and Kallee beckoned forward one of his men. The Eysie who stepped up was no match for Kosti.
Before he caught the rich scent of the paste inside them Dane had already identified each as luxury items from Casper chemical products which sold well and at high prices in the civilized ports of the Galaxy. The Cargo-master turned the boxes over, exposing the symbol on their undersides the mark of I-S. "These were offered to me in trade by a Salarik.
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