hough they had been sprayed on, and steel helmets. I wished we had a
city police force like that. They were Odin Dock & Shipyard Company
men, all former Federation Regular Army or Colonial Constabulary. The
spaceport wasn't part of Port Sandor, or even Fenris; the Odin Dock &
Shipyard Company was the government there, and it was run honestly and
efficiently.

They knew me, and when they saw Tom towing my hamper they cracked a
few jokes about the new _Times_ cub reporter and waved us through. I
thought they might give Bish an argument, but they just nodded and let
him pass, too. We all went out onto the bridge, and across the pit to
the equator of the two-thousand-foot globular ship.

We went into the main lounge, and the captain introduced us to Mr.
Glenn Murell. He was fairly tall, with light gray hair, prematurely
so, I thought, and a pleasant, noncommittal face. I'd have pegged him
for a businessman. Well, I suppose authoring is a business, if that
was his business. He shook hands with us, and said:

"Aren't you rather young to be a newsman?"

I started to burn on that. I get it all the time, and it burns me all the
time, but worst of all on the job. Maybe I am only going-on-eighteen, but
I'm doing a man's work, and I'm doing it competently.

"Well, they grow up young on Fenris, Mr. Murell," Captain Marshak
earned my gratitude by putting in. "Either that or they don't live to
grow up."

Murell unhooked his memophone and repeated the captain's remark into
it. Opening line for one of his chapters. Then he wanted to know if
I'd been born on Fenris. I saw I was going to have to get firm with
Mr. Murell, right away. The time to stop that sort of thing is as soon
as it starts.

"Who," I wanted to know, "is interviewing whom? You'll have at least
five hundred hours till the next possible ship out of here; I only
have two and a half to my next deadline. You want coverage, don't you?
The more publicity you get, the easier your own job's going to be."

Then I introduced Tom, carefully giving the impression that while I
handled all ordinary assignments, I needed help to give him the full
VIP treatment. We went over to a quiet corner and sat down, and the
interview started.

The camera case I was carrying was a snare and a deceit. Everybody
knows that reporters use recorders in interviews, but it never pays to
be too obtrusive about them, or the subject gets recorder-conscious
and stiffens up. What I had was better th