id Bish had been in there till after midnight, with
some other people." He named three disreputables, two female and one
male. "They were drinking quite a lot. Harry said Bish was plastered
to the ears. They finally went out, around 0130. He said the police
were in and out checking the crowd, but they didn't make any trouble."

I nodded, feeling very badly. Four and a half hours had been his
limit. Well, sometimes a ninety per cent failure is really a triumph;
after all, it's a ten per cent success. Bish had gone four and a half
hours without taking a drink. Maybe the percentage would be a little
better the next time. I was surely old enough to stop expecting
miracles.

The mate of the _Pequod_ called in, around noon, and said it was safe
for Oscar to come back to the ship. The mate of the _Javelin_, Ramon
Llewellyn, called in with the same report, that along the waterfront, at
least, the heat was off. However, he had started an ambitious-looking
overhaul operation, which looked as though it was good for a hundred
hours but which could be dropped on a minute's notice, and under cover
of this he had been taking on supplies and ammunition.

We made a long audiovisual of Murell announcing his price of eighty
centisols a pound for wax on behalf of Argentine Exotic Organics, Ltd.
As soon as that was finished, we loaded the boat-clothes we'd picked
up for him and his travel kit and mine into a car, with Julio Kubanoff
to bring it back to the _Times_, and went to the waterfront. When we
arrived, Ramon Llewellyn had gotten things cleared up, and the
_Javelin_ was ready to move as soon as we came aboard.

On the Main City Level, the waterfront is a hundred feet above the
ship pools; the ships load from and discharge onto the First Level
Down. The city roof curves down all along the south side of the city
into the water and about fifty feet below it. That way, even in the
post-sunset and post-dawn storms, ships can come in submerged around
the outer breakwater and under the roof, and we don't get any wind or
heavy seas along the docks.

Murell was interested in everything he saw, in the brief time while we
were going down along the docks to where the _Javelin_ was berthed. I
knew he'd never actually seen it before, but he must have been
studying pictures of it, because from some of the remarks he made, I
could tell that he was familiar with it.

Most of the ships had lifted out of the water and were resting on the
wide con