e
cheapest and best insurance I know of. If! There's that big if. I
hate that word. I always have, and I'm going to eliminate 'if,' as far
as Peter Ambrose Miller is concerned. Right?"

Of course he was right. Hiroshima could just as well have been Memphis
or Moscow or Middletown. And I always had wanted to be rich enough to
carry my own insurance....

Before Smith left he told me it might be a month or two before he
would see me again.

"These things aren't arranged overnight, you know."

I knew that.

I would be landed, he said, somewhere, someplace, and I'd be my own
boss, up to a point. Stein would be with me, and the secrecy routine
would still be in effect.... His voice trailed off, and I neither saw
nor heard him leave.

* * * * *

Three miserable weeks I spent somewhere in some stinking Southern
Pacific mudhole. Cocker spaniel Stein was never out of reach, or
sight, and gave me the little attention I wanted. From a distance I
occasionally saw Army and Navy. The enlisted men were the ones who
brought me not everything I asked for, but enough to get along. Later
on, I knew, I'd get the moon on ice if I were actually as valuable as
appeared. At that time no one was sure, including some brass who came
poking around when they thought I might be asleep. They stayed far
away from me, evidently under strict orders to do just that, although
they took Stein aside several times and barked importantly at him. I
don't think they made much impression on Stein. I was aching for an
argument at that stage, and it's just as well they dodged contact.
When Smith showed up, with the usual officious body-guard, I was
itching to go.

Bikini I'd seen in the newsreels, and this wasn't it. The back forty
would have dwarfed it. Just a limp palm or two and an occasional
skinny lump of herbiage. Ships of all naval types and a civilian
freighter or so spotted themselves at anchor like jagged rocks around
the compass. The gray cruiser we were on never once dropped its hook;
it paced nervously back and forth, up and down, and I followed, pacing
the deck. With Stein at my heels, I saw daylight only through the
ports. Only at night did I get to where I could smell the salt breeze
free of the stink of paint and Diesel oil. From what I know about
ships and their complements we must have had at least the captain's
cabin, or pretty close to its mate. We never saw the captain, or at
least he was never around