be
I'd better take Burt first, while Rusty got set. I never did see a guy
so one way about having something in his hands.

But Doc didn't drop out. "There ain't nothing but a few scrub trees on
Mars," he said to Burt, looking him square in the eye. "And no creeks
and no rain."

Burt curled his lip sarcastically. "The hell you say! Is that why you
didn't like it there?" You could see he was just trying to egg Doc into
saying he'd come from Mars, so he could give him the horse laugh. The
guys he was with were getting set for a fracas, but they were waiting
for Burt to lead off.

Doc didn't get caught. "But there's gold," he said, like he hadn't heard
Burt at all. "Tons of it--laying all over the ground."

I guess Burt decided to ride along. "Okay, Yoris," he said. "Tell you
what I'll do. For only one ton of Martian gold I'll agree to drop all
plans for a pulp mill, here or anywhere else. In fact, I'll get out of
business altogether."

Doc moved in like a log falling out of the loading tongs. "That's a
deal," he said. "You ready to go?"

Burt started to look disgusted, then he smiled. "Sure. Mars must be
quite a place if you came from there."

"Okay," said Doc. "You just stand up against the wall, Mr. Holden."
Burt's smile faded. He figured Doc was trying to maneuver him into a
likely position for us. But Doc cleared that up quick. "You boys get up
and stand aside," he ordered. "Get back a ways and give Mr. Holden
plenty of room." We didn't like it, but we cleared out from around the
table. A bunch from the bar and pool tables, sensing something was up,
came drifting over to watch. I could feel tension building up. "Now,"
said Doc, pointing, "you just stand right over there, Mr. Holden, and
fold your arms."

Burt didn't like the audience, and I guess he figured his plans were
backfiring when Doc didn't bluff. "You hill-happy old coot," he
snarled. "You'd better go home and sleep it off!" I grabbed hold of
Lew's arm and shook my head at Rusty. I wasn't going to interfere with
Doc now.

"You're not scared, are you, Mr. Holden?" said Doc quietly. "Just you
stand against the wall and take it easy. It won't hurt a bit."

* * * * *

Burt Holden was plenty tough for an Outsider, and a hard-headed
businessman to boot, but he'd never run into a customer like Doc before.
You could see him trying to make up his mind on how to handle this
thing. He glanced around quick at the crowd, and I