Manning sighed. "Maybe it's time I went out there myself and had a
seance with the horses." He set down his glass of brandy, which he had
been turning in his hand as he spoke. "Lee, I want you to check back
here with me in two hours ... by then I should have things straightened
up and ready to go."

He strode to the supply closet at one end of the room and took from it a
belt and holster, from which he removed a recent-model regulation
stunner. "This is as powerful a weapon as we have here so far, except
for the heavy stuff. I hope we never have to use any of that--clearing
it for use is a lot of red tape." He looked up and saw the cold
expression on Rynason's face. "Of course, I hope we don't have to use
the stunners, either," he said calmly.

Rynason turned without a word and went to the door. He stopped there for
a moment and watched Manning checking over the weapon. He was thinking
of the disintegrators he had seen on the steps of the Temple of Kor, and
of the shell of a body tumbling out of the shadows.

"I'll see you at 600," he said.

SEVEN

Rynason spent the next two hours in town, moving through the windy
streets and thinking about what Manning had said. He was right, in a
way: this was no more than a foothold for the Earthmen, a touchdown
point. It wasn't even a community yet; buildings were still going up,
prices varied widely not only between landings of spacers but also
according to who did the selling. A lot of the men here were trying some
mining out on the west Flat; their findings had so far been small but
they brought the only real income the planet had so far yielded. The
rest of the town was rising on its own weight: bars, rooming houses,
laundries, and diners--establishments which thrived only because there
were men here to patronize them. Several weeks before a few of the men
had tried killing and eating the small animals who darted through the
alleys, but too many of those men had died and the practice had been
quickly abandoned. And they had noticed that when those animals foraged
in the refuse heaps outside the town, they died too.

A few of the big corporations had sent out field men to look around, but
it was too soon for any industry to have established itself here; all
the planet offered so far was room to expand. Despite the wide expansion
of the Earthmen through the stars, a planet where conditions were at all
favorable for living was not to be overlooked; the continuing