"H. Beam Piper - Four- Day Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

2
Reporter Working
Bish came over and greeted us solemnly.
тАЬGood afternoon, gentlemen. Captain Ahab, I believe,тАЭ he said, bowing
to Tom, who seemed slightly puzzled; the education Tom had been digging
out for himself was technical rather than literary. тАЬAnd Mr. Pulitzer. Or is it
Horace Greeley?тАЭ
тАЬLord Beaverbrook, your Grace,тАЭ I replied. тАЬHave you any little news
items for us from your diocese?тАЭ
Bish teetered slightly, getting out a cigar and inspecting it carefully
before lighting it.
тАЬWe-el,тАЭ he said carefully, тАЬmy diocese is full to the hatch covers with
sinners, but that's scarcely news.тАЭ He turned to Tom. тАЬOne of your hands on
the Javelin got into a fight in Martian Joe's, a while ago. Lumped the other
man up pretty badly.тАЭ He named the Javelin crewman, and the man who
had been pounded. The latter was one of Steve Ravick's goons. тАЬBut not
fatally, I regret to say,тАЭ Bish added. тАЬThe local Gestapo are looking for your
man, but he made it aboard Nip Spazoni's Bulldog, and by this time he's
halfway to Hermann Reuch's Land.тАЭ
тАЬIsn't Nip going to the meeting, tonight?тАЭ Tom asked.
Bish shook his head. тАЬNip is a peace-loving man. He has a well-founded
suspicion that peace is going to be in short supply around Hunters' Hall this
evening. You know, of course, that Leo Belsher's coming in on the
Peenem├╝nde and will be there to announce another price cut. The new
price, I understand, will be thirty-five centisols a pound.тАЭ
Seven hundred sols a ton, I thought; why, that would barely pay ship
expenses.
тАЬWhere did you get that?тАЭ Tom asked, a trifle sharply.
тАЬOh, I have my spies and informers,тАЭ Bish said. тАЬAnd even if I hadn't, it
would figure. The only reason Leo Belsher ever comes to this Eden among
planets is to negotiate a new contract, and who ever heard of a new
contract at a higher price?тАЭ
That had all happened before, a number of times. When Steve Ravick
had gotten control of the Hunters' Co-operative, the price of tallow-wax, on
the loading floor at Port Sandor spaceport, had been fifteen hundred sols a
ton. As far as Dad and I could find out, it was still bringing the same price
on Terra as it always had. It looked to us as if Ravick and Leo Belsher, who
was the Co-op representative on Terra, and Mort Hallstock were simply
pocketing the difference. I was just as sore about what was happening as
anybody who went out in the hunter-ships. Tallow-wax is our only export.
All our imports are paid for with credit from the sale of wax.
It isn't really wax, and it isn't tallow. It's a growth on the Jarvis's
sea-monster; there's a layer of it under the skin, and around organs that
need padding. An average-sized monster, say a hundred and fifty feet long,
will yield twelve to fifteen tons of it, and a good hunter kills about ten
monsters a year. Well, at the price Belsher and Ravick were going to cut
from, that would run a little short of a hundred and fifty thousand sols for a