among the stars. Neely's pals. In a moment
they would arrive.

* * * * *

Endlich took Neely and the loaded basket close to the transparent side
of the greenhouse, nearest the approaching roughnecks. There he removed
Neely's oxygen helmet, hoping that, maybe, this might deter his friends
a little from rupturing the plastic of the huge bubble and letting the
air out. It was a feeble safeguard, for, in all probability, in case of
such rupture, Neely would be rescued from death by smothering and cold
and the boiling of his blood, simply by having his helmet slammed back
on again.

Next, Endlich dumped the contents of the basket on the ground, inverted
it, and sat Neely upon it. The big man had recovered consciousness
enough to be merely groggy by now. Endlich slapped his battered face
vigorously, to help clear his head--after having, of course, relieved
him of the blaster at his belt.

Endlich left his own face-window open, so that the sounds of Neely's
voice could penetrate to the mike of his own helmet phone, thus to be
transmitted to the helmet phones of Neely's buddies.

Endlich was anything but calm inside, with the wild horde, as
irresponsible in their present state of mind as a pack of idiot baboons,
bearing down on him. But he forced his tone to be conversational when he
spoke.

"Hello, Neely," he said. "You mentioned you liked tomatoes. Maybe you
were kidding. Anyhow I brought you along home with me, so you could have
some. Here on the ground, right in front of you, is a whole bushel. The
regular asteroids price--considering the trouble it takes to grow 'em,
and the amount of dough a guy like you can make for himself out here, is
five bucks apiece. But for you, right now, they're all free. Here, have
a nice fresh, ripe one, Neely."

The big man glared at his captor for a second, after he had looked
dazedly around. He would have leaped to his feet--except that the muzzle
of his own blaster was leveled at the center of his chest, at a range of
not over twenty inches. For a fleeting instant, Neely looked scared and
prudent. Then he saw his pals, landing like a flock of birds, just
beyond the transparent side of the greenhouse. And he heard their
shouts, coming loudly from Endlich's helmet-phones:

"We come after you, Neely! We'll get the damn yokel off your neck....
Come on, guys--let's turn the damn place upside down!..."

Neely grew courageous--yes, maybe it did take a cert