lints from the puddles on the
sidewalk. Three robots, painted snow white to show they were night
workers, pushed the doors open and came in. No one went out as the
curfew hadn't ended yet. They milled around slowly talking in low
voices.

The only human being in the entire lobby was the night clerk dozing
behind the counter. The clock over his head said five minutes to six.
Shifting his glance from the clock, Jon became aware of a squat black
robot waving to attract his attention. The powerful arms and compact
build identified him as a member of the Diger family, one of the most
numerous groups. He pushed through the crowd and clapped Jon on the back
with a resounding clang.

"Jon Venex! I knew it was you as soon as I saw you sticking up out of
this crowd like a green tree trunk. I haven't seen you since the old
days on Venus!"

Jon didn't need to check the number stamped on the short one's scratched
chestplate. Alec Diger had been his only close friend during those
thirteen boring years at Orange Sea Camp. A good chess player and a whiz
at Two-handed Handball, they had spent all their off time together. They
shook hands, with the extra squeeze that means friendliness.

"Alec, you beat-up little grease pot, what brings you to New York?"

"The burning desire to see something besides rain and jungle, if you
must know. After you bought out, things got just too damn dull. I began
working two shifts a day in that foul diamond mine, and then three a day
for the last month to get enough credits to buy my contract and passage
back to earth. I was underground so long that the photocell on my right
eye burned out when the sunlight hit it."

He leaned forward with a hoarse confidential whisper, "If you want to
know the truth, I had a sixty-carat diamond stuck behind the eye lens. I
sold it here on earth for two hundred credits, gave me six months of
easy living. It's all gone now, so I'm on my way to the employment
exchange." His voice boomed loud again, "And how about _you_?"

Jon Venex chuckled at his friend's frank approach to life. "It's just
been the old routine with me, a run of odd jobs until I got side-swiped
by a bus--it fractured my knee bearing. The only job I could get with a
bad leg was feeding slops to pigs. Earned enough to fix the knee--and
here _I_ am."

Alec jerked his thumb at a rust-colored, three-foot-tall robot that had
come up quietly beside him. "If you think you've got trouble take a look
at Dik