Retief-Ambassador to Space Read Free

removed or not."
    "Is correct assumptation. Big
tourist drawing card. Also more fun this way, have something to bet on. Odds
ten to one against Terries now."
    "Meanwhile, he goes on eating
people."
    "Sure, few peasants got devour,
but so long Crun-derthush avoid eat me, is no scales off my stiz-plats, in word
of immortal bard."
    "Shakespeare?"
    "No. Egbert Hiesenwhacker, early
Terran trader introduce cards and dice to Rockamorra."
    "Cards and dice, eh?"
    "Sure; you like play? Come on,
have fun, forget troubles, help kill time up to big affair tomorrow."
    "That's a good idea, Haccop; lead
the way ..."
6
    It was dawn when Retief emerged from
the Rockamorran gambling hell; Haccop followed him at the end of a light chain
attached to a steel ring rivetted to his ankle, carrying a large basket of
Rockamorran currency.
    "Hey, Retief-master, lousy trick fill
up when I got three ladies of ill repute—"
    "I warned you about those inside
straights, Haccop. Now tell me something; all that information the boys gave me
about Crunderthush's habits. Was that all the straight dope?"
    "Sure, Retief: pukka information—"
    "All right, next stop the
Ministry of Tradition. Lead on, Haccop."
7
    An hour later, Retief emerged from the
Ministry, frowning.
    "It's not the best deal in the
world, Haccop, but I suppose it's better than nothing."
    "Should have offered bigger
bribes, boss."
    "I'm on a tight budget. Still I
think we have a fighting chance. I'm going to need a heli and a good pair of
binoculars. See to it at once, and meet me at the Grand Canal in half an
hour."
    "Boss, why worry about
small-timers back in hoose-gow? Look, I got plan; we be partners. You deal, and
I circulate around behind opposition and signal with trick sunglasses—"
    "We can discuss business later.
Get going, before I report you to the Slave Relations Board for
insubordination."
    "Sure, chief, chop-chop!"
Haccop set off at a lope, and Retief headed for the nearest sporting-goods
shop.
8
    Half an hour later, Haccop dropped a
second-hand float-mounted heli in beside the quay where Retief waited beside a
heap of goods. The Terran caught the mooring rope, pulled the light machine
close, handed in his purchases and stepped aboard.
    "They say Crunderthush is
foraging a mile or two east of town; let's buzz over that way and size him
up."
    The heli lifted above the fernlike
palms, beat its way across the gleaming pattern of canals and dome-shaped
dwellings of Rockamorra City, gaining altitude; beyond the tilled paddies at
the edge of the town a vast swamp stretched to distant smudges of jungle.
    "That's him, boss!" Haccop
called, pointing. Retief used the binoculars, picked out a towering shape
almost invisible among the tall trees rising in clumps from the shallow water.
    "He's big, all right. But he
seems to be eating treetops; I thought he was a meat-eater."
    "Sure, meat-eater, master. Dumb
peasant climb tree get away, Crunderthush not have to bend neck."
    The heli approached the browsing
dinosaur at three hundred feet, circled him while Retief observed. The giant
saurian, annoyed by the buzzing interloper, raised his great-jawed head,
emitted a bellow like a blast on a giant tuba. Retief caught a vivid glimpse of
a purple throat wide enough to drive a ground car through, studded with fangs
like stalactites.
    "Friendly-looking fellow. Is it
possible to predict his course?"
    "Maybe; Crunderthush always take
it easy, graze village over pretty good before move on to next. About done
here, I estimation. By lunchtime start toward next stop, half mile south."
    "Let's cruise over that
way."
    Haccop dropped the heli to a
fifty-foot altitude, buzzed across the flat water, leaving behind a pattern of
blastripples, bending the scattered reeds in the wind of its passage.
    "How deep is the water
here?" Retief called.
    "Knee-deep at low tide."
    "When's low tide?"
    "Hour before sunset
tonight."
    "What's the bottom like?"
    "Exquisite soft mud. Hey, master,
you like go down scroonch around in