off your noisemakers and toss the Head Steward
a thought. Tell him you're scratching your entries."

"But that won't stop the people from losing their money."

"Natch. So next you broadcast a thought that because of this terrible,
grievous error you are refunding their money out of your own pocket
since the Track Association will not or is not obliged to."

He turned to his pair of rattleheads and snarled, "All right. Shut up!"

A mental silence fell that was like the peace of rest after a busy day.
As Barcelona was tossing his cancellation at the Steward and preparing
to make a full and plausible explanation to the gambling instinct of the
Kentucky Derby crowd, I considered the matter carefully:

"Let's see," I thought. "He wants 'em not to run and so he can't
complain to me if they do not. I didn't fix the race, so Lieutenant
Delancey can't accuse me of that. That makes everybody happy, and I
win!"

A small hand stole into mine. "How about me, Wally?" Nora asked sweetly.

I looked down at a thionite dream come true by the glow in her eyes that
admired no one else but me. "You're mine," I reminded her, "until Flying
Heels, Moonbeam, and Lady Grace win One, Two, and Three at the Kentucky
Derby."

"Or," she said mischievously, "'Til death do us part!"

* * * * *

I was instructing her how to respond to a kiss as a lady should respond
when about two hundred thousand noisy, exuberant human natures yelled
and radiated and thought: "They're Off!"

But they didn't mean us. They were watching a bunch of long-faced
hayburners chasing one another around a dusty track.

Human nature ain't changed a bit. It's just more complicated in an
extrasensory sort of way.

THE END

[Illustration]

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Astounding Science Fiction_ December
1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Big Fix, by George Oliver Smith

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