but
there's no room... And in the market..."

"Shucks--it's new here to us, too," Ramos soothed. "Riding an Archer in
space, at zero-G, is different from this..."

Things were a bit less strained, after that, through the skimpy meal,
with its special devices, unique to the asteroids and their tiny
gravity. Clamps to fasten plates to tables and victuals to plates.
Drinking vessels that were half-squeeze bottles. Such equipment was now
available in what might once have been called a dime store--but with
another price-level.

The visitors made a game of being awkward and inept, together. It was
balm for Helen's sensitivity.

"Somebody's got to keep the camera for us, Mex," Frank Nelsen said
presently.

"Yeah--I know. Les'll do it for us," Ramos answered. "He's the best,
there. He can run through all the pictures--make copies with an ordinary
camera... See if he can market them. Twenty percent ought to be about
right for his cut."

Lester tried to interrupt, but Frank got ahead of him. "We owe Gimp for
those loads we lost. Got to cut him into this, as a consultant. You'll
be around Pallastown for a while, helping out with this end of the
Twin's enterprises, won't you, Gimp?"

Hines grinned. "Probably. Glad you slobs got memories. Glad to be of
assistance, anytime. Les is no louse--he'll help old friends. I'll bring
him the camera, out of the safe at my hotel, as soon as we leave
here..."

Lester smiled doubtfully, and then happily. That was how they worked the
fabulous generosity of spacemen in the chips on him.

Nelsen, Ramos and Hines escaped soon after that.

"Three hours left. I guess you guys want to get lost--separately," Gimp
chuckled. "I'll say so long at the launching catapults, later. I've got
some tough guards, fresh from the Moon, who will go along with you. Art
and Joe need them..."

Frank Nelsen wandered alone in the recreation area. He heard
music--_Fire Streak_, _Queen of Serene_... He searched faces, looking
for an ugly one with shovel teeth. He thought, with an achy wistfulness,
of a small hero-worshipping girl named Jennie Harper, at Serene.

He found no one he had ever seen before. In a joint he watched a girl
with almost no clothes, do an incredible number of spinning somersaults
in mid-air. He thought he ought to find himself a friend--then decided
perversely, to hell with it.

He thought of the trouble on Earth, of Ceres, of Tiflin and Igor, of
Fanshaw, the latest leader of the Aster