"Deal's
off. I ain't gonna spend the rest of my life on a prison asteroid!"
"Shinny, you know too much!" Loring's hand darted toward the blaster he
wore at his belt.
"Your secret's safe with me. I give you my spaceman's word on it," said
Shinny, pushing back his chair. Abruptly getting to his feet, he
scrambled rapidly out the door of the Cafe Cosmos.
"Loring," said Mason, "get him. You can't let him ..."
"Forget it," shot back the other. "He won't break his spaceman's oath.
Not Shinny." He got up. "Come on, Mason. We haven't got much time before
the _Annie Jones_ blasts off."
"What are we gonna do?" the shorter man wanted to know.
"Stow away on the cargo deck. Then, when we get out into space, we dump
the pilots and head for Tara, for our first load of copper."
"But a job like this'll take money!"
"We'll make enough to go ahead on the first load."
Mason began to get up, hesitated, and then sat down again.
"Come on," snapped Loring. His hand dropped toward his belt. "I'm going
to make you rich, Mason," he said quietly. "I'm going to make you one of
the richest men in the universe--even if I have to kill you first.
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