Ole Doc Methuselah Read Online Free PDF Page B

said. “Oh no, indeed. I’m sure that we might be able to come to
some sort of an understanding on this. Ah . . . perhaps forty thousand dollars—”
    â€œNo,
twenty thousand is all the cash I have,” said Ole Doc.
    â€œWhy,
then, this is very simple; if you give us your note of hand for, let us say,
twenty thousand dollars at proper interest and cash to the sum of twenty
thousand dollars, why, we can arrange the matter right here. I have the power
of attorney, you know, to sign for all these things for Mr. Elston.”
    â€œDone,”
said Ole Doc, and felt himself seized immediately by the eager Blanchard who
pumped his hand so hard that he nearly broke the wrist bones. The clerk was now
thoroughly popeyed. And he was all thumbs and blots as he attempted to make out
the papers for the transaction. But finally his difficulties were dispensed
with and Ole Doc, signing the name of William Jones and paying across the
proper sums and notes, found himself the possessor, proud owner and manager of
the waterworks of Junction City.
    Blanchard
seemed to be anxious to depart immediately and left Ole Doc to his own devices.
For some hours the doctor wandered through the city looking in at the temporary
dwellings, watching men struggle to raise out of secondhand materials livable
or usable establishments. He patted children on the head, diagnosed to himself
various diseases and deformities, and was generally a Harun
al-Rashid .
    Hope
was the prevailing emotion and there was not a man there who did not consider
himself a potential millionaire to such a degree that they were giving each
other notes of hand payable thirty days hence to enormous sums. But so far as
actual cash was concerned, from what Ole Doc could glean, there remained but a
few dollars in the whole town. The rest he correctly judged was safely drowned
in the depths of Edouard Blanchard’s safe. The town was restricted between a
river and a ridge and every inch of ground between these natural boundaries was
deeded to someone other than Edouard Blanchard, as Ole Doc, later in the
afternoon, ascertained after a short session with the clerk. He was forced to
waken the clerk several times during his inspection of the books. That gentleman
was happily asleep when some of the ledgers not generally opened were closely
inspected.
    Ole
Doc stood in the sunlight for a while, thoughtful, barely avoiding a blaster
fight which broke out in a swill parlor . Finally he
understood that Edouard Blanchard probably intended to leave the area for good
before another dawn came.
    Ole
Doc had for some time been aware of shadowing of the Morgue . But before
he went back to his ship he decided to take an unusual step.
    This
did not consume many minutes, for there were only five space vessels in the
crude port and all of these had come from more or less regular runs amongst
known systems. His business transacted, he went back to the golden vessel.
    Â 
    That
evening, after a pleasant dinner over which Miss Elston graciously presided,
Ole Doc and Hippocrates left the ship on an expedition. They had reached the
bottom of the ladder when Ole Doc turned to his slave.
    â€œHippocrates,
over there on the left you behold some trees. Under them you will find a
Martian. You will make a wide circuit and come up upon him while I distract his
attention from in front. Without injury to the fellow you will hold him and
make him prisoner. We will then put him away safely in the Morgue and go
about our business.”
    Dart,
squirming and shuddering a little bit in the cold, and perhaps with a
premonition that he should not expect the evening to deliver anything but evil,
suddenly felt himself struck solidly and expertly from behind. As he went down
he half drew a blaster but there was no chance to use it. Dreaming peacefully
of his beloved canals, he was carried back to the ship and consigned to an
escape-proof compartment.
    In
a businesslike way then Hippocrates picked up his