Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury Read Online Free PDF Page B

occupied by several of the senior men of the Observatory. One in particular, Han-ley Cook, second in command at the Dome, leaned his tall, lean body forward and took Lucky's hand firmly in his own.
    Lucky and Bigman took their seats and the salads were served.
    Urteil said at once in a harsh voice that effectively took over the conversation, "We were wondering just before you came in whether young Mindes ought not to tell you of the great wonders in store for Earth as a result of his experiments."
    "No such thing," snapped Mindes, "and I'll do my own talking if you don't mind."
    "Oh, come on, Scott," said Urteil, grinning broadly, "don't be bashful. Well, then, look here,
I'll
tell the man."
    Dr. Gardoma's hand fell, as though by accident, on Mindes's shoulder, and the young engineer swallowed a cry of indignation and remained silent.
    Urteil said, "Now I warn you, Starr, this is going to be good. It… "
    Lucky interrupted, "I know something of the experiments. The grand result of an air-conditioned planet is quite possible, I think."
    Urteil scowled. "That so? I'm glad you're optimistic. Poor Scott can't even make the pilot experiment work. Or at least he says he can't, don't you, Scott?"
    Mindes half rose, but again Dr. Gardoma's hand was on his shoulder.
    Bigman's eyes traveled from speaker to speaker, resting on Urteil with black distaste. He said nothing.
    The arrival of the main course stopped the conversation momentarily, and Dr. Peverale tried desperately to turn it into less explosive channels. For a while he succeeded, but then Urteil, with the last of his helping of roast beef impaled on his fork, leaned toward Lucky and said, "So you go for the project Mindes is running, do you?"
    "I think it's a reasonable one."
    "You have to think that, being a member of the Council of Science. But what if I told you that the experiments here were phony; they could be run on Earth for one per cent of the cost if the Council were only interested enough in the taxpayers' money to save a little of it. What would you say if I told you that?"
    "The same thing I would say if you told me anything at all," retorted Lucky composedly. "I would say, Mr. Urteil, that the chances are that you're lying. It's your greatest talent and, I believe, pleasure."
    Instantly a great silence fell on the banqueters, even on Urteil. His thick cheeks seemed to sag in surprise and his eyes to bulge. With sudden passion, he leaned directly across Dr. Peverale's place, rising from his seat and bringing his right hand down hard and flat just short of Lucky's platter.
    "No Council lackey-" he began in a roar.
    And as he did that, Bigman moved, too. No eye at the table saw the details of that move, since it flashed with the speed of a striking snake, but Urteil's roar ended in a shout of dismay.
    Urteil's hand, which had come down with such hard finality, now showed the carved metallic haft of a force-knife growing out of it.
    Dr. Peverale scraped his chair back suddenly, and there was a cry or an exclamation from every man there but Bigman himself. Even Lucky seemed startled.
    Bigman's tenor voice rose in delight. "Spread your fingers, you tub of mineral oil. Spread them and then grease back down into your seat."
    Urteil stared at his small tormenter without understanding for a moment and then very slowly spread his fingers. His hand was not hurt, not a sliver of skin had been removed. The force-knife stood quivering in the hard plastic table top, an inch of its waveringly luminescent force-blade (it wasn't matter, merely a thin field of immaterial force) in sight. The knife had entered the table, working its way neatly and unerringly between the second and third finger of Urteil's hand.
    Urteil snatched Ms hand away as though it were suddenly in flames.
    Bigman crowed with delight and said, "And next time you reach a hand in Lucky's direction or in mine, you cobber, I chop it right off. What would you say if I told you that? And whatever you say, say it