The Moon Moth and Other Stories Read Online Free PDF

explosions—” “Land mines,” interrupted Holpers, “that’s what they were.” “—threw Vine Hill enough off stride so that Roaring Cape mopped up Pink Stone Table with them.”
    Magnus Ridolph sat up.
    “Is that right, indeed? Then I have won after all!”
    Julius See became suddenly silky, and Bruce Holpers, teetering on heel and toe, glanced skyward. “Unfortunately, Mr. Ridolph, so many persons had placed large bets on Roaring Cape that on meeting the odds, we find ourselves short on cash. We’ll have to ask you to take your winnings out in board and room.”
    “But gentlemen!” protested Magnus Ridolph. “A hundred thousand munits! I’ll be here until doomsday!”
    See shook his head. “Not at our special Ridolph rates. The next packet is due in five days. Your bill comes to 20,000 munits a day. Exactly 100,000 munits.”
    “I’m afraid I find your humor a trifle heavy,” said Magnus Ridolph frostily.
    “It wasn’t intended to make you laugh,” said See. “Only us. I’m getting quite a kick out of it. How about you, Bruce?”
    “Ha, ha, ha,” laughed Holpers.
    Magnus Ridolph rose to his feet. “There remains to me the classical recourse. I shall leave your exorbitant premises.”
    See permitted a grin to widen his lips. “Where are you going to leave to?”
    “He’s going to Roaring Cape Tumble,” snickered Holpers. “They owe him a lot.”
    “In connection with the hundred thousand munits owed me, I’ll take a note, an IOU. Oddly enough, a hundred thousand munits is almost exactly what I lost in the Outer Empire Realty and Investment failure.”
    See grinned sourly. “Forget it, Ridolph, give it up—an angle that didn’t pay off.”
    Magnus Ridolph bowed, marched away. See and Holpers stood looking after him. Holpers made an adenoidal sound. “Think he’ll move out?”
    See grunted. “There’s no reason why he should. He’s not getting the hundred thousand anyway; he’d be smarter sitting tight.”
    “I hope he does go; he makes me nervous. Another deal like today would wipe us out. Six hundred thousand munits—a lot of scratch to go in ten minutes.”
    “We’ll get it back…Maybe we can rig a battle or two ourselves.”
    Holpers’ long face dropped, and his teeth showed. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. First thing you know Commonwealth Control would be—”
    “Pah!” spat See. “What’s Control going to do about it? Clark has all the fire and guts of a Leghorn pullet.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Just leave it to me.”
    They returned to the lobby. The desk clerk made an urgent motion. “Mr. Ridolph has just checked out! I don’t understand where—”
    See cut him off with a brusque motion. “He can camp under a stele for all I care.”
    Magnus Ridolph sat back in the most comfortable of Everley Clark’s armchairs and lit a cigarette. Clark watched him with an expression at once wary and obstinate. “We have gained a tactical victory,” said Magnus Ridolph, “and suffered a strategic defeat.”
    Everley Clark knit his brows uneasily. “I don’t quite follow you. I should think—”
    “We have diminished the financial power of Shadow Valley Inn, and hence, done serious damage. But the blow was not decisive and the syndicate is still viable. I was unable to collect my hundred thousand munits, and also have been forced from the scene of maximum engagement. By this token we may fairly consider that our minimum objectives have not been gained.”
    “Well,” said Clark, “I know it hurts to have to admit defeat, but we’ve done our best and no one can do more. Considering my position, perhaps it’s just as well that—”
    “If conditions were to be allowed to rest on the present basis,” said Magnus Ridolph, “there might be reason for some slight relaxation. But I fear that See and Holpers have been too thoroughly agitated by their losses to let the matter drop.”
    Everley Clark eyed Magnus Ridolph in perturbation. “But what can they do?