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|---|---|---|---|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, he must be an impostor! he exclaimed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What kind of a racket do you think he's up to?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mmm-mm; I wouldn't say that, not right away, Bish said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In the first place, Murell may be his true name and he may publish under a nom de plume. I admit, some of the other items are a little suspicious, but even if he isn't an author, he may have some legitimate business here and, having heard a few stories about this planetary Elysium, he may be exercising a little caution. Walt, tell your father about that tallow-wax we saw, down in Bottom Level Fourth Ward."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, that is funny, he said when I was through."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why do you suppose...?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Somebody, Bish said,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I hope so! And if they do it before the _Cape Canaveral_ gets in, they may fix Leo Belsher, too, and then, in the general excitement, somebody might clobber Mort Hallstock, and that'd be grand slam. After the triple funeral, we could go to work on setting up an honest co-operative and an honest government."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, I never expected to hear you advocating lynch law, Dad,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know what the trouble is, here? We have no government. No legal government, anyhow; no government under Federation law. We don't even have a Federation Resident-Agent. Before the Fenris Company went broke, it was the government here; when the Space Navy evacuated the colonists, they evacuated the government along with them. The thousand who remained were all too busy keeping alive to worry about that. They didn't even care when Fenris was reclassified from Class III, uninhabited but inhabitable, to Class II, inhabitable only in artificial environment, like Mercury or Titan. And when Mort Hallstock got hold of the town-meeting pseudo government they put together fifty years ago and turned it into a dictatorship, nobody realized what had happened till it was too late. Lynch law's the only recourse we have."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ralph, Bish told him,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, that's swell! Dad said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Federation Government has never paid us any attention; the Federation planets are scattered over too many million cubic light-years of space for the Government to run around to all of them wiping everybody's noses. As long as things are quiet here, they'll continue to do nothing for us. But let a story hit the big papers on Terra, _Revolution Breaks Out on Fenris_--and that'll be the story I'll send to Interworld News--and watch what happens."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will tell you what will happen, Bish Ware said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A lot of people will get killed. That isn't important, in itself. People are getting killed all the time, in a lot worse causes. But these people will all have friends and relatives who will take it up for them. Start killing people here in a faction fight, and somebody will be shooting somebody in the back out of a dark passage a hundred years from now over it. You want this planet poisoned with blood feuds for the next century?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We don't want it poisoned for the next century with the sort of thing Mort Hallstock and Steve Ravick started here, either,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Granted. Bish nodded."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If a civil war's the only possible way to get rid of them, that's what you'll have to have, I suppose. Only make sure you don't leave a single one of them alive when it's over. But if you can get the Federation Government in here to clean the mess up, that would be better. Nobody starts a vendetta with the Terran Federation."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But how? Dad asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've sent story after story off about crime and corruption on Fenris. They all get the file-and-forget treatment."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't know what you can do, he said slowly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If you can stall off the blowup till the _Cape Canaveral_ gets in, and you can send somebody to Terra...."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, don't say, 'If _you_ can,' I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Say, 'If _we_ can.' You live on Fenris, too, don't you?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hello, Walt, Joe greeted me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What's this Tom's been telling me about Bish Ware shooting a tread-snail that was going to sting Mr. Murell?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Just about that, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That snail must have crawled out from between two stacks of wax as we came up. We never saw it till it was all over. It was right beside Murell and had its stinger up when Bish shot it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He took an awful chance, Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He might of shot Mr. Murell."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He wouldn't have taken any chance not shooting, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If he hadn't, we'd have been running the Murell story with black borders."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I wouldn't want any drunk like Bish Ware shooting around me with a pistol,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't kid yourself, Joe, Oscar told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I saw Bish shoot a knife out of a man's hand, one time, in One Eye Swanson's. Didn't scratch the guy; hit the blade. One Eye has the knife, with the bullet mark on it, over his back bar, now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, was he drunk then?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, he had to hang onto the bar with one hand while he fired with the other. Then he turned to me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How is Murell, now?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wonder if he's going to try to give us that stuff about substitutes?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, what are you going to do?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll tell you what we're not going to do, Joe Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We're not going to take his price cut. If he won't pay our price, he can use his [deleted by censor] substitutes."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't sell wax anywhere else, can you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Is that so, we can't?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We can eat for a while, even if we don't sell wax. Sigurd Ngozori'll carry us for a while and make loans on wax. But if the wax stops coming in, Kapstaad Chemical's going to start wondering why...."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's a bunch of old business, he said,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Please don't applaud, he begged."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What I have to tell you isn't anything to applaud about."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're tootin' well right it isn't!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm very sorry to have to bring this news to you, but the fact is that Kapstaad Chemical Products, Ltd., is no longer able to pay forty-five centisols a pound. This price is being scaled down to thirty-five centisols. I want you to understand that Kapstaad Chemical wants to give you every cent they can, but business conditions no longer permit them to pay the old price. Thirty-five is the absolute maximum they can pay and still meet competition--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Aaah, knock it off, Belsher! somebody shouted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We heard all that rot on the screen."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How about our contract? somebody else asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We do have a contract with Kapstaad, don't we?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, the contract will have to be re-negotiated. They'll pay thirty-five centisols or they'll pay nothing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They can try getting along without wax. Or try buying it somewhere else!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; those wonderful synthetic substitutes!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. Chairman, Oscar Fujisawa called out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I move that this organization reject the price of thirty-five centisols a pound for tallow-wax, as offered by, or through, Leo Belsher at this meeting."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I second Captain Fujisawa's motion,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And Leo Belsher doesn't have the floor; he's not a member of the Co-operative, Tom Kivelson declared."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He's our hired employee, and as soon as this present motion is dealt with, I intend moving that we fire him and hire somebody else."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I move to amend Captain Fujisawa's motion, Joe Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I move that the motion, as amended, read, '--and stipulate a price of seventy-five centisols a pound.'"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're crazy!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yeah?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Walt, get hold of the Kivelsons and get them out of Hunters' Hall as fast as you can, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I just got a tip from one of my ... my parishioners. Ravick's going to stage a riot to give Hallstock's cops an excuse to raid the meeting. They want the Kivelsons."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Roger."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You think we don't get any news on this planet? Tallow-wax has been selling for the same price on Terra that it did eight years ago, when you two crooks started cutting the price. Why, the very ship Belsher came here on brought the quotations on the commodity market--"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oscar, Dad just called me, I told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A tip came in to the Times that Ravick's boys are going to fake a riot and Hallstock's cops are going to raid the meeting. They want Joe and Tom. You know what they'll do if they get hold of them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shot while resisting arrest. You sure this is a good tip, though?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's a double two-em-dashed lie, you etaoin shrdlu so-and-so!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who are you calling a so-and-so, you thus-and-so-ing such-and-such?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, it is, Oscar decided."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let's go."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Watch it, Walt; I'm with it!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come on, Joe; let's get moving, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hallstock's Gestapo are on the way. They have orders to get you dead or alive."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Like blazes! Joe told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I never chickened out on a fight yet, and--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want to get your crew and your son killed, and yourself along with them? Oscar asked him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's what'll happen if the cops catch you. Now are you coming, or will I have to knock you senseless and drag you out?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's the stuff, Joe! Oscar shouted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Come on, we got them on the run!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is Walter Boyd, returning you now to the regular entertainment program."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We're going down in the elevator to Second Level Down, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have Joe and Tom and Oscar Fujisawa and a few of the _Javelin_ crew with me. The place is crawling with cops now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Go to Third Level Down and get up on the catwalk on the right, Bish said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll be along to pick you up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Roger. We'll be looking for you."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're getting a pickup, I told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Vehicle from the _Times_."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fine captain I am, running out and leaving them!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If they couldn't keep up, that's their tough luck, Oscar Fujisawa told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You brought out all you could. If you'd waited any longer, none of us would have gotten out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They won't bother with them, I added."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You and Tom and Oscar, here, are the ones they want."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where do you gentlemen wish to go?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "To the _Javelin_,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Huh-uh, Oscar disagreed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's the first place they'll look. That'll be all right for Ramón and the others, but if they catch you and Tom, they'll shoot you and call it self-defense, or take you in and beat both of you to a jelly. This'll blow over in fifteen or twenty hours, but I'm not going anywhere near my ship, now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Drop us off on Second Level Down, about Eighth Street and a couple of blocks from the docks, the mate, Llewellyn, said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'll borrow some weapons from Patel the Pawnbroker and then circulate around and see what's going on. But you and Joe and Oscar had better go underground for a while."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The _Times_, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We have a whole pillar-building to ourselves; we could hide half the population."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did he have anything to drink after I left?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing but about five cups of coffee."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How'd he manage to come for us?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, he was here with me all evening, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He came from the spaceport with Walt and Tom, and had dinner with us. He called a few people from here, and found out about the fake riot and police raid Ravick had cooked up. You'd be surprised at how much information he can pick up around town."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hey! You let him see--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The wax on Bottom Level, in the Fourth Ward? I asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He won't blab about that. He doesn't blab things where they oughtn't be blabbed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's right, Dad backed me up. He was beginning to think of Bish as one of the _Times_ staff, now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We got a lot of tips from him, but nothing we give him gets out. He got his pipe lit again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What about that wax, Joe? he asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Were you serious when you made that motion about a price of seventy-five centisols?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I sure was! Joe declared."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's the real price, and always has been, and that's what we get or Kapstaad doesn't get any more wax."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If Murell can top it, maybe Kapstaad won't get any more wax, period, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who's he with--Interstellar Import-Export?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where'd you hear that? he demanded, which is the Galaxy's silliest question to ask any newsman."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tom, if you've been talking--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He hasn't, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He didn't need to. It sticks out a parsec in all directions. I mentioned some of the things I'd noticed while interviewing Murell, and his behavior after leaving the ship."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Even before I'd talked to him, I wondered why Tom was so anxious to get aboard with me. He didn't know we'd arranged to put Murell up here; he was going to take him to see that wax, and then take him to the _Javelin_. You were going to produce him at the meeting and have him bid against Belsher, only that tread-snail fouled your lines for you. So then you thought you had to stall off a new contract till he got out of the hospital."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You got it all figured out, haven't you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The _Times_, Dad was saying, trying not to sound too proud,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It isn't Interstellar, Oscar told me, grinning."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's Argentine Exotic Organics. You know, everybody thought Joe, here, was getting pretty high-toned, sending his daughter to school on Terra. School wasn't the only thing she went for. We got a letter from her, the last time the Cape Canaveral was in, saying that she'd contacted Argentine Organics and that a man was coming out on the _Peenemünde_, posing as a travel-book author. Well, he's here, now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'd better keep an eye on him, I advised."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If Steve Ravick gets to him, he won't be much use to you."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You think Ravick would really harm Murell?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What do you think, Ralph? Oscar asked him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If we get competitive wax buying, again, seventy-five a pound will be the starting price. I'm not spending the money till I get it, but I wouldn't be surprised to see wax go to a sol a pound on the loading floor here. And you know what that would mean."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thirty for Steve Ravick, Dad said. That puzzled Oscar, till I explained that"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "is newsese for"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": ""
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I guess Walt's right. Ravick would do anything to prevent that. He thought for a moment."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe, you were using the wrong strategy. You should have let Ravick get that thirty-five centisol price established for the Co-operative, and then had Murell offer seventy-five or something like that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You crazy? Joe demanded."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, then the Co-op would have been stuck with it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's right. And as soon as Murell's price was announced, everybody would drop out of the Co-operative and reclaim their wax, even the captains who owe Ravick money. He'd have nobody left but a handful of thugs and barflies."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But that would smash the Co-operative, Joe Kivelson objected."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Listen, Ralph; I've been in the Co-operative all my life, since before Steve Ravick was heard of on this planet. I've worked hard for the Co-operative, and--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You don't have a Co-operative, Joe. Steve Ravick has a racket. The only thing you can do with this organization is smash it, and then rebuild it with Ravick and his gang left out."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think Walt has something, Oscar Fujisawa said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As long as Murell's in the hospital at the spaceport, he's safe, but as soon as he gets out of Odin Dock & Shipyard territory, he's going to be a clay pigeon."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "On the _Peenemünde_, I was talking about taking Mr. Murell for a trip in the _Javelin_, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That was while we were still pretending he'd come here to write a book. Maybe that would be a good idea, anyhow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's a cinch we can't let him get killed on us, his father said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I doubt if Exotic Organics would send anybody else out, if he was."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'll run the story we have on him in the morning edition, and then correct it and apologize to the public for misleading them and explain in the evening edition. And before he goes, we can have him make an audiovisual for the 'cast, telling everybody who he is and announcing the price he's offering. We'll put that on the air. Get enough publicity, and Steve Ravick won't dare do anything to him."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, do you think Ravick's gotten onto Murell yet? Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We kept that a pretty close secret. Joe and I knew about him, and so did the Mahatma and Nip Spazoni and Corkscrew Finnegan, and that was all."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I didn't even tell Tom, here, till the _Peenemünde_ got into radio range, Joe Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Then I only told him and Ramón and Abdullah and Abe and Hans Cronje."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And Al Devis, Tom added."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He came into the conning tower while you were telling the rest of us."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have some early returns, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The cops cleared everybody out of Hunters' Hall except the Ravick gang. Then Ravick reconvened the meeting, with nobody but his gang. They were very careful to make sure they had enough for a legal quorum under the bylaws, and then they voted to accept the new price of thirty-five centisols a pound."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's what I was afraid of, Joe Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did they arrest any of my crew?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not that I know of, Bish said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They made a few arrests, but turned everybody loose later. They're still looking for you and your son. As far as I know, they aren't interested in anybody else. He glanced hastily over his shoulder, as though to make sure the door of the booth was secure."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm with some people, now. I'll call you back later."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, that's that, Joe, Oscar said, after Bish blanked the screen."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Ravick Co-op's stuck with the price cut. The only thing left to do is get everybody out of it we can, and organize a new one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I guess that's so, Joe agreed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder, though if Ravick has really got wise to Murell."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Walt figured it out since the ship got in, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Belsher's been on the ship with Murell for six months. Well, call it three; everything speeds up about double in hyperspace. But in three months he ought to see as much as Walt saw in a couple of hours."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, maybe Belsher doesn't know what's suspicious, the way Walt does,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm sure he doesn't, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But he and Murell are both in the wax business. I'll bet he noticed dozens of things I never even saw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then we'd better take awfully good care of Mr. Murell, Tom said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Get him aboard as fast as we can, and get out of here with him. Walt, you're coming along, aren't you?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Eighty centisols a pound, he said. Nice and definite; quite a difference from the way he stumbled around over listing his previous publications."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Seventy-five's the Kapstaad price, regardless of what you people here have been getting from that crook of a Belsher. We'll have to go far enough beyond that to make him have to run like blazes to catch up. You can put it in the _Times_ that the day of monopolistic marketing on Fenris is over."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, he said unhappily."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He didn't call in, this morning, so I called his apartment and didn't get an answer. Then I called Harry Wong's. Harry said Bish had been in there till after midnight, with some other people. He named three disreputables, two female and one male."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They were drinking quite a lot. Harry said Bish was plastered to the ears. They finally went out, around 0130. He said the police were in and out checking the crowd, but they didn't make any trouble."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're one man short; Devis, Abdullah's helper. Hospital."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Get hurt in the fight, last night? He was right with us till we got out to the elevators, and then I missed him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. He made it back to the ship about the same time we did, and he was all right then. Didn't even have a scratch. Strained his back at work, this morning, trying to lift a power-unit cartridge by hand."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What's he think this is, the First Century Pre-Atomic? Aren't there any lifters on the ship?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Probably didn't want to bother taking a couple of steps to get one. The doctor told him to take treatment and observation for a day or so."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's Al Devis? I asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What hospital?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Co-op hospital."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know anything about engines, Walt?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I know they generate a magnetic current and convert rotary magnetic current into one-directional repulsion fields, and violate the daylights out of all the old Newtonian laws of motion and attraction, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I read that in a book. That was as far as I got. The math got a little complicated after that, and I started reading another book."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You'd be a big help. Think you could hit anything with a 50-mm? Tom asked."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know you're pretty sharp with a pistol or a chopper, but a cannon's different."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I could try. If you want to heave over an empty packing case or something, I could waste a few rounds seeing if I could come anywhere close to it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'll do that, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ordinarily, I handle the after gun when we sight a monster, but somebody'll have to help Abdullah with the engines."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Walt's made some awful lucky shots with that target pistol of his, I know that, he said,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, those things are big enough for a five-thousand-ton freighter,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They have to be, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Running submerged isn't the same as running in atmosphere. You ever done any swimming?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I was born in Antarctica, on Terra. The water's a little too cold to do much swimming there. And I've spent most of my time since then in central Argentine, in the pampas country. The sports there are horseback riding and polo and things like that."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who is she?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe told me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nip's bringing my saloon fighter aboard, and he wants to meet Mr. Murell."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here's your prodigal, Joe, he was saying, peeling out of his parka as he came up the ladder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I owe him a second gunner's share on a monster, fifteen tons of wax."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hey, that was a good one. You heading home, now? Then he turned to the other man, who had followed Nip up the ladder."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You didn't do a very good job, Bill, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The so-and-so's out of the hospital by now."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, you know who takes care of his own, the crewman said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Give me something for effort; I tried hard enough."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, I'm not going home yet, Nip was answering."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have hold-room for the wax of another one, if he isn't bigger than ordinary. I'm going to go down on the bottom when the winds start and sit it out, and then try to get a second one. Then he saw me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, hey, Walt; when did you turn into a monster-hunter?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, good; you oughtn't to have any trouble finding one, Nip said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There must have been a Nifflheim of a big storm off to the east, beyond the Lava Islands. I got mine north of Cape Terror. There's huge patches of sea-spaghetti drifting west, all along the coast of Hermann Reuch's Land. Here. He pulled out a map."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'll find it all along here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, it's seaweed; the name describes it. Screwfish eat it; big schools of them follow it. Gulpers and funnelmouths and bag-bellies eat screwfish, and monsters eat them. So wherever you find spaghetti, you can count on finding a monster or two."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How's the weather?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good enough, now. It was almost full dark when we finished the cutting-up. It was raining; in fifty or sixty hours it ought to be getting pretty bad. Spazoni pointed on the map."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here's about where I think you ought to try, Joe."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think so, myself, he added."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That gang has some kind of a knife up their sleeve. Bish is trying to find out just what it is."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is he drinking much?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, he isn't on the wagon, I can tell you that, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm beginning to think that he isn't really sober till he's half plastered."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now, mind, Tom was telling me,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So I notice, I replied. I had also noticed that every time I got the cross hairs on anything and squeezed the trigger, they were on something else when the trigger went plonk."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All this gun needs is another lever, to control the motion of the ship."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, that only makes it more fun,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You won't put any wax in the hold with that kind of shooting,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, you scared him, anyhow,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Heave over another one, he called."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That monster got away."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know what you're doing wrong, Tom said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You're squeezing the trigger."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're not shooting a pistol, he continued."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You don't have to hold the gun on the target with the hand you shoot with. The mount control, in your other hand, does that. As soon as the cross hairs touch the target, just grab the trigger as though it was a million sols getting away from you. Well, sixteen thousand; that's what a monster's worth now, Murell prices. Jerking won't have the least effect on your hold whatever."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You mean like this?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That would have been a dead monster, Tom said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let's see you do it again."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That wasn't bad, Walt, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You never manned a 50-mm before, did you?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, and it's all backward from anything I ever learned about shooting, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now, suppose I get a shot at a monster; where do I try to hit him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Here, I'll show you."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Always get him from in front, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Aim right here, where his chest makes a kind of V at the base of the neck. A 50-mm will go six or eight feet into him before it explodes, and it'll explode among his heart and lungs and things. If it goes straight along his body, it'll open him up and make the cutting-up easier, and it won't spoil much wax. That's where I always shoot."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Suppose I get a broadside shot?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, then put your shell right under the flukes at the end of the tail. That'll turn him and position him for a second shot from in front. But mostly, you'll get a shot from in front, if the ship's down near the surface. Monsters will usually try to attack the ship. They attack anything around their own size that they see, he told me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But don't ever make a body shot broadside-to. You'll kill the monster, but you'll blow about five thousand sols' worth of wax to Nifflheim doing it."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "the voice yelled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "About ten points off your port bow. We're circling over it now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Monster ho! Kivelson yelled into the intercom, in case anybody hadn't heard."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All hands to killing stations. Then he saw me standing there, wondering what was going to happen next."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, mister, didn't you hear me? he bellowed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Get to your gun!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes sir!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Run in the guns and seal ports. Secure for submersion. We're going down and chase him up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "After gun secure. Hans Cronje's voice, a moment later, said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Forward gun secure, and then Ramón Llewellyn said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ship secure; ready to submerge."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get set for torpedo,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're going to surface. Get set to run the guns out and start shooting as soon as we're out of the water."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What happened?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Must have put the torp right under him and lifted him, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He could be dead or stunned. Or he could be live and active and spoiling for a fight."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right, Kivelson was saying, out of the intercom."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Shooting's over. All hands for cutting-up."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Walt, can you use a machine gun?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, all right. Suppose you cover for us from the boat, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mr. Murell can pilot for you. You never worked at cutting-up before, and neither did he. You'd be more of a hindrance than a help and so would he. But we do need a good machine gunner. As soon as we start throwing out waste, we'll have all the slashers and halberd fish for miles around. You just shoot them as fast as you see them."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And don't shoot any of the crew."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's pretty dangerous work, Murell said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If a man using one of those cutters slipped...."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's happened, I told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You met our peg-legged compositor, Julio. That was how he lost his leg."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't blame them for wanting all they can get for tallow-wax."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I make it about fourteen tons, Ramón Llewellyn, who had been checking the wax as it went into the hold, said. He figured mentally for a moment, and added,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Call it twenty-two thousand sols."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hey, do we want to let them do that? I whispered to Murell."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We just came along for the ride."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't want the money, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "These people need every cent they can get."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're just guests, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We don't work here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The dickens you are, Joe Kivelson contradicted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Maybe you came aboard as guests, but you're both part of the crew now. I never saw a prettier shot on a monster than Walt made--took that thing's head off like a chicken on a chopping block--and he did a swell job of covering for the cutting-up. And he couldn't have done that if Murell hadn't handled the boat the way he did, and that was no easy job."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, let's talk about that when we get to port, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are we going right back, or are we going to try for another monster?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know, Joe said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We could stow the wax, if we didn't get too much, but if we stay out, we'll have to wait out the wind and by then it'll be pretty cold."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The longer we stay out, the more the cruise'll cost, Abdullah Monnahan, the engineer, said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Tell the truth, I'm sort of antsy to get back, Joe Kivelson said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to see what's going on in Port Sandor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "So am I, Murell said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I want to get some kind of office opened, and get into business. What time will the _Cape Canaveral_ be getting in? I want a big cargo, for the first time."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, not for four hundred hours, at the least, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The spaceships always try to miss the early-dark and early-daylight storms. It's hard to get a big ship down in a high wind."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That'll be plenty of time, I suppose, Murell said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's all that wax you have stored, and what I can get out of the Co-operative stores from crews that reclaim it. But I'm going to have a lot to do."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I agreed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dodging bullets, for one."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, I don't expect any trouble, Murell said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This fellow Ravick's shot his round."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The magazines are aft, you dunderhead, Joe Kivelson told him, shoving himself to his feet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Stay put, everybody; I'll see what it is."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hull must be ruptured forward; we're making water. It's spouting up the hatch from the engine room like a geyser, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ramón, go see what it's like in the boat berth. The rest of you, follow him, and grab all the food and warm clothing you can. We're going to have to abandon."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Take it easy, now; don't crowd. We'll all get out."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's squirting up from below in a dozen places, he said, after he'd sealed the boat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The whole front of the ship must be blown out."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, now we know what happened to Simon MacGregor's _Claymore_,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's what I think, too, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Everybody grab onto something; we're getting the door open."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you really think it was sabotage? Murell was asking me. Blowing up a ship with sixteen men aboard must have seemed sort of extreme to him. Maybe that wasn't according to Terran business ethics."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mightn't it have been a power unit?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. Power units don't blow, and if one did, it would vaporize the whole ship and a quarter of a cubic mile of water around her. No, that was old fashioned country-style chemical explosive. Cataclysmite, probably."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ravick?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know how well he can get along without you and Joe Kivelson, and here's a chance to get along without both of you together. Everybody in the boat was listening, so I continued:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How much do you know about this fellow Devis, who strained his back at the last moment?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Engine room's where he could have planted something,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He was in there by himself for a while, the morning after the meeting,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And he disappeared between the meeting room and the elevator, during the fight, Tom mentioned."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And when he showed up, he hadn't been marked up any. I'd have thought he'd have been pretty badly beaten--unless they knew he was one of their own gang."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're going to look Devis up when we get back,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If we get back, Ramón Llewellyn told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's going to take some doing."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We have the boat, Hans Cronje said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's a little crowded, but we can make it back to Port Sandor."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I hope we can, Abe Clifford, the navigator, said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shall we take her up, Joe?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, see what it's like on top,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, that's that. Joe Kivelson said, when we were back in the underwater calm again."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'll have to stay under till the wind's over. Don't anybody move around or breathe any deeper than you have to. We'll have to conserve oxygen."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Isn't the boat equipped with electrolytic gills?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure, to supply oxygen for a maximum of six men. We have sixteen in here."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How long will our air last, for sixteen of us?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "About eight hours."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We can go south, to the coast of Hermann Reuch's Land, Abe Clifford, the navigator, said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let me figure something out."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dumont! You light that pipe and I'll feed it to you!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Gosh, Joe; I guess I just wasn't thinking..."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, give me that pipe. Joe put it in the drawer under the charts."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Now you won't have it handy the next time you don't think."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ship's position I don't have exactly; somewhere around East 25 Longitude, South 20 Latitude. I can't work out our present position at all, except that we're somewhere around South 30 Latitude. The locator signal is almost exactly north-by-northeast of us. If we keep it dead astern, we'll come out in Sancerre Bay, on Hermann Reuch's Land. If we make that, we're all right. We'll be in the lee of the Hacksaw Mountains, and we can surface from time to time to change air, and as soon as the wind falls we can start for home."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It looks like a ten-hour trip, submerged, Joe said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's two hours too long, and there's no way of getting more oxygen out of the gills than we're getting now. We'll just have to use less. Everybody lie down and breathe as shallowly as possible, and don't do anything to use energy. I'm going to get on the radio and see what I can raise."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Captain Kivelson, _Javelin_, calling. My ship was wrecked by an explosion; all hands now in scout boat, proceeding toward Sancerre Bay, on course south-by-southwest from the wreck. Locator signal is being broadcast from the _Javelin_. Other than that, we do not know our position. Calling all craft, calling Mayday."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday..."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're done for if we stay down here another hour, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Any argument on that?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We haven't raised anything at all on the radio, Murell went on."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That means nobody's within an hour of reaching us. Am I right?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I guess that's about the size of it,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How close to land are we?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The radar isn't getting anything but open water and schools of fish, Abe Clifford said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "For all I know, we could be inside Sancerre Bay now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, then, why don't we surface? Murell continued."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's a thousand to one against us, but if we stay here our chances are precisely one hundred per cent negative."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What do you think? Joe asked generally."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think Mr. Murell's stated it correctly."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is no death, Cesário said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Death is only a change, and then more of life. I don't care what you do."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What have we got to lose? somebody else asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We're broke and gambling on credit now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All right; we surface, the skipper said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Everybody grab onto something. We'll take the Nifflheim of a slamming around as soon as we're out of the water."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If anybody wants to see me in the next reincarnation, I can tell you one thing; I won't reincarnate again on Fenris!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hey, we're down! I said, as though I were telling anybody anything they didn't know."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How many are still alive?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "As far as I know, all of us, Joe said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think I have a broken arm."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, where are we?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The radio's smashed, so's the receiver for the locator, and so's the radio navigational equipment. I can state positively, however, that we are on the north coast of Hermann Reuch's Land."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'd say we're a good deal west of Sancerre Bay, Cesário Vieira hazarded."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We can't be east of it, the way we got blown west. I think we must be at least five hundred miles east of it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't fool yourself, Cesário, Joe Kivelson told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We could have gotten into a turbulent updraft and been carried to the upper, eastward winds. The altimeter was trying to keep up with the boat and just couldn't, half the time. We don't know where we went. I'll take Abe's estimate and let it go at that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, we're up some kind of a fjord, Tom said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think it branches like a Y, and we're up the left branch, but I won't make a point of that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can't find anything like that on this map,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You ought to know better than that, Abe; you know how thoroughly this coast hasn't been mapped."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How much good will it do us to know where we are, right now? I asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If the radio's smashed, we can't give anybody our position."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We might be able to fix up the engines and get the boat in the air again, after the wind drops. Monnahan said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll take a look at them and see how badly they've been banged up."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "With the whole stern open? Hans Cronje asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'd freeze stiffer than a gun barrel before we went a hundred miles."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then we can pack the stern full of wet snow and let it freeze, instead of us, I suggested."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There'll be plenty of snow before the wind goes down."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That would work, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How soon can you get started on the engines, Abdullah?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Right away. I'll need somebody to help me, though. I can't do much the way you have me bandaged up."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think we'd better send a couple of parties out, Ramón Llewellyn said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'll have to find a better place to stay than this boat. We don't all have parkas or lined boots, and we have a couple of injured men. This heater won't be enough; in about seventy hours we'd all freeze to death sitting around it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I doubt it, Llewellyn said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I was on an exploring expedition down here, once. This is all igneous rock, mostly granite. There aren't many caves. But there may be some sort of natural shelter, or something we can make into a shelter, not too far away. We have two half-ton lifters; we could use them to pile up rocks and build something. Let's make up two parties. I'll take one; Abe, you take the other. One of us can go up and the other can go down."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "One thing, we have firewood,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What'll we cut it with; our knives?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, we have a sonocutter on the boat, Ramón Llewellyn said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We can chop these things into thousand-pound chunks and float them to camp with the lifters. We could soak the spongy stuff on the outside with water and let it freeze, and build a hut out of it, too. He looked around, as far as the light penetrated the driving snow."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This wouldn't be a bad place to camp."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is this all we have?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "There's the regular boat radio, but it's smashed up pretty badly. I was thinking we could do something about cannibalizing one radio out of parts from both of them."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's too far from the boat. We can't trudge back and forth to work on the engines. We could cut firewood down there and float it up with the lifters, and I think that's a good idea about using slabs of the soft wood to build a hut. But let's build the hut right here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, suppose I take a party down now and start cutting?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not yet. Wait till Abe gets back and we see what he found upstream. There may be something better up there."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think we can forget about the engines. This is a machine-shop job. We need parts, and we haven't anything to make them out of or with."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Tom, take a look at this mess, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "See if you can help us with it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You need a magnifier for this. Wait till I see something."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There's a little waterfall about half a mile up. It isn't too hard to get up over it, and above, the ground levels off into a big bowl-shaped depression that looks as if it had been a lake bottom, once. The wind isn't so bad up there, and this whole lake bottom or whatever it is is grown up with trees. It would be a good place to make a camp, if it wasn't so far from the boat."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "How hard would it be to cut wood up there and bring it down?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, easy. I don't think it would be nearly as hard as the place Ramón found."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Neither do I, the mate agreed."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Climbing up that waterfall down the stream with a half tree trunk would be a lot harder than dropping one over beside the one above. He began zipping up his parka."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let's get the cutter and the lifters and go up now."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wait till I warm up a little, and I'll go with you,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll take that back, Ramón, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I can do a lot more good right here. Have you taken any of the radio navigational equipment apart, yet?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, I think we can get some stuff out of the astrocompass that can be used. Let me in here, will you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You take over for me, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll go on the wood-chopping detail."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "See what all you'll miss, if you take your next reincarnation off Fenris, I said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This, and the long sunsets and sunrises, and--"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shooting! and,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The machine gun!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Something's attacking them,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, there isn't anything to attack them now, Abe said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "All the critters are dug in for the winter. I'll bet they're just using it to chop wood with."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We better go see what it is, Cesário insisted."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It might be trouble."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Come on in! We made contact!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Press,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What happened? I asked, as soon as I was inside. I saw Joe Kivelson getting up from the radio and making place for Abe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who did you contact?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Mahatma; _Helldiver_, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Signal's faint, but plain; they're trying to make a directional fix on us. There are about a dozen ships out looking for us: _Helldiver_, _Pequod_, _Bulldog_, _Dirty Gertie_..."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How did they find out? I wanted to know."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Somebody pick up our Mayday while we were cruising submerged?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, of course not. We don't know where in Nifflheim we are. All the instruments in the boat were smashed."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, can't you shoot the stars, Abe?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure we can. If you're in range of this makeshift set, the position we'd get would be practically the same as yours, Abe told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Look, there's a floodlight pointed straight up. Can you see that?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "In all this moonlight? We could be half a mile away and not see it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We've been firing with a 7-mm,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know; I heard it. On the radio. Have you got any rockets? Maybe if you shot one of them up we could see it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hey, that's an idea! Hans, have we another rocket with an explosive head?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No. Your Dad tried to call the _Javelin_ by screen; that must have been after we abandoned ship. He didn't get an answer, and put out a general call. Nip Spazoni was nearest, and he cruised around and picked up the locator signal and found the wreck, with the boat berth blown open and the boat gone. Then everybody started looking for us."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You say you're all along the coast. Are the other ships west or east of you?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "West, as far as I know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then we must be way east of you. Where are you now?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "About five hundred miles east of Sancerre Bay."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Rocket's ready for vertical launching. Ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one; rocket off!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Didn't see a thing,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hey, I know what they would see! Tom Kivelson burst out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say we go up and set the woods on fire?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hey, that's an idea. Listen, Mahatma; we have a big forest of flowerpot trees up on a plateau above us. Say we set that on fire. Think you could see it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't see why not, even in this moonlight. Wait a minute, till I call the other ships."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This guy's a real pyromaniac,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sure I am, Cesário took time out to reply."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know who I was about fifty reincarnations ago? Nero, burning Rome. Theosophists never hesitated to make fun of their religion, that way. The way they see it, a thing isn't much good if it can't stand being made fun of."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And look at the job I did on Moscow, a little later."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure; I remember that. I was Napoleon then. What I'd have done to you if I'd caught you, too."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, and I know what he was in another reincarnation, Tom added."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. O'Leary's cow!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They see it! They see it!"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is Walter Boyd, _Times_ representative with the _Javelin_ castaways, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has anybody a portable audiovisual pickup that I can use to get some pictures in to my paper with?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We have one, Walt, Oscar Fujisawa's voice told me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm coming in ahead in the _Pequod_ scout boat; I'll bring it with me."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Thanks, Oscar, I said. Then I asked him:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did you see Bish Ware before you left port?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I should say I did! Oscar told me."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can thank Bish Ware that we're out looking for you now. Tell you about it as soon as we get in."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now I am turning you over to Walter Boyd, the _Times_ correspondent with the _Javelin_ castaways."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's this about Bish Ware? You said he was the one who started the search."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That's right, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "About thirty hours after you left port, he picked up some things that made him think the _Javelin_ had been sabotaged. He went to your father, and he contacted me--Mohandas Feinberg and I still had our ships in port--and started calling the _Javelin_ by screen. When he couldn't get response, your father put out a general call to all hunter-ships. Nip Spazoni reported boarding the _Javelin_, and then went searching the area where he thought you'd been hunting, picked up your locator signal, and found the _Javelin_ on the bottom with her bow blown out and the boat berth open and the boat gone. We all figured you'd head south with the boat, and that's where we went to look."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, Bish Ware; he was dead drunk, last I heard of him,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Aah, just an act, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That was to fool the city cops, and anybody else who needed fooling. It worked so well that he was able to crash a party Steve Ravick was throwing at Hunters' Hall, after the meeting. That was where he picked up some hints that Ravick had a spy in the _Javelin_ crew. He spent the next twenty or so hours following that up, and heard about your man Devis straining his back. He found out what Devis did on the _Javelin_, and that gave him the idea that whatever the sabotage was, it would be something to the engines. What did happen, by the way?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That was what Nip Spazoni thought when he looked at the ship. Well, after that he talked to your father and to me, and then your father began calling and we heard from Nip."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, it's lucky anybody listened to him, he grudged."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wouldn't have."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, I guess maybe you wouldn't, Oscar told him, not very cordially."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think he did a mighty sharp piece of detective work, myself."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We didn't have time to bother with any Al Devises, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "As soon as Bish figured out what had happened aboard the _Javelin_, we knew you'd need help and need it fast. He's keeping an eye on Al for us till we get back."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's if he doesn't get any drunker and forget,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We better find out what he drinks and buy you a jug of it, Joe,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, one thing, Oscar told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Bring that machine gun, and what small arms you have. I think things are going to get sort of rough in Port Sandor, in the next twenty or so hours."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not good, Walt. The word's gotten around that there was a bomb planted aboard the _Javelin_, and everybody's taking just one guess who did it. We haven't expressed any opinions one way or another, yet. We've been waiting for confirmation."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Set for recording, I said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll give you the story as far as we know it."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The condition of the hull looked very much like the effect of a charge of high explosive exploding in the engine room,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We got some views of it, transmitted in by Captain Spazoni, of the _Bulldog_, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Captain Courtland, of the Spaceport Police, has expressed the opinion that it could hardly be anything but a small demolition bomb. Would you say accident can be ruled out?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I would. There was nobody in the engine room at the time; we were resting on the bottom, and all hands were in the wardroom."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's good enough, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We'll run it as 'very convincing and almost conclusive' evidence of sabotage. He'd shut off the recorder for that."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Can I get the story of how you abandoned ship and landed, now?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We're in sight of Port Sandor,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You guys poked along, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I always thought the _Pequod_ was fast. We got in three hours ago."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who else is in?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Corkscrew and some of his gang are here at the _Times_, now. _Bulldog_ and _Slasher_ just got in a while ago. Some of the ships that were farthest west and didn't go to your camp have been in quite a while. We're having a meeting here. We are organizing the Port Sandor Vigilance Committee and Renegade Hunters' Co-operative."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Knock off the argument, down there; you people are all going to stay on the ship. I'm going up to the _Times_; as soon as I'm off, float her out into the inner channel and keep her afloat, and don't let anybody aboard you're not sure of."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That where we're going?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sure. That's the safest place in town for Mr. Murell and I want to find out exactly what's going on here."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, here; you don't need to put me in storage, Murell protested."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can take care of myself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm sure of it, but we can't take any chances, Oscar told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Right now, you are Fenris's Indispensable Man. If you're not around to buy tallow-wax, Ravick's won the war."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Please make way; this man's been injured. Please don't crowd; we have an injured man here. The crowd began shoving back, and in the rear I could hear them taking it up:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Joe Kivelson; he's been hurt. They're carrying Joe Kivelson off. That made Joe curse a blue streak, and somebody said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, he's been hurt real bad; just listen to him!"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How did you get onto it?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No trick at all, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I just circulated and bought drinks for people. The trouble with Ravick's gang, it's an army of mercenaries. They'll do anything for the price of a drink, and as long as my rich uncle stays solvent, I always have the price of a drink. In the five years I've spent in this Garden Spot of the Galaxy, I've learned some pretty surprising things about Steve Ravick's operations."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, surely, nobody was going around places like Martian Joe's or One Eye Swanson's boasting that they'd put a time bomb aboard the _Javelin_,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And then, about thirty hours after the Javelin left port, I was in the Happy Haven, and who should I see, buying drinks for the house, but Al Devis. I let him buy me one, and he told me he'd strained his back hand-lifting a power-unit cartridge. A square dance got started a little later, and he got into it. His back didn't look very strained to me. And then I heard a couple of characters in One Eye Swanson's betting that the _Javelin_ would never make port again."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where is Al Devis? I asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A lot of people want to talk to him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know they do. I want to get to him first, while he's still in condition to do some talking of his own. But he just dropped out of sight, about the time your father started calling the _Javelin_."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ah!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I doubt it, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not unless it was absolutely necessary. That sort of thing would have a discouraging effect the next time Ravick wanted a special job done. I'm pretty sure he isn't at Hunters' Hall, but he's hiding somewhere."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That's what I say! Joe Kivelson was shouting."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let's go clean out both rats' nests. Why, there must be a thousand hunter-ship men at the waterfront, and look how many people in town who want to help. We got enough men to eat Hunters' Hall whole."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You'll find it slightly inedible, Joe, Bish told him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ravick has about thirty men of his own and fifteen to twenty city police. He has at least four 50-mm's on the landing stage above, and he has half a dozen heavy machine guns and twice that many light 7-mm's."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Bish is right, somebody else said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They have the vehicle port on the street level barricaded, and they have the two floors on the level below sealed off. We got men all around it and nobody can get out, but if we try to blast our way in, it's going to cost us like Nifflheim."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You mean you're just going to sit here and talk about it and not do anything?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We're going to do something, Joe, Dad told him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But we've got to talk about what we're going to do, and how we're going to do it, or it'll be us who'll get wiped out."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, we'll have to decide on what it'll be, pretty quick,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What are things like at the Municipal Building? Oscar Fujisawa asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You say Ravick has fifteen to twenty city cops at Hunters' Hall. Where are the rest of them? That would only be five to ten."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "At the Municipal Building, Bish said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hallstock's holed up there, trying to pretend that nothing out of the ordinary is happening."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Good. Let's go to the Municipal Building, first, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Take a couple of hundred men, make a lot of noise, shoot out a few windows and all yell, 'Hang Mort Hallstock!' loud enough, and he'll recall the cops he has at Hunters' Hall to save his own neck. Then the rest of us can make a quick rush and take Hunters' Hall."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'll have to keep our main force around Hunters' Hall while we're demonstrating at the Municipal Building, Corkscrew Finnegan said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We can't take a chance on Ravick's getting away."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I couldn't care less whether he gets away or not, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't want Steve Ravick's blood. I just want him out of the Co-operative, and if he runs out from it now, he'll never get back in."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You want him, and you want him alive, Bish Ware said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ravick has close to four million sols banked on Terra. Every millisol of that's money he's stolen from the monster-hunters of this planet, through the Co-operative. If you just take him out and string him up, you'll have the Nifflheim of a time getting hold of any of it."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, this isn't my party, Glenn Murell said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Four million sols, Bish said,"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think it's a good scheme, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Don't mass any more men around Hunters' Hall than necessary. You don't want the police to be afraid to leave when Hallstock calls them in to help him at Municipal Building."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think I'll see what I can do at Hunters' Hall, in the meantime, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'm going to see if there's some way in from the First or Second Level Down. Walt, do you still have that sleep-gas gadget of yours?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes; it's down in my room. I'll get it for you,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Be careful, Bish, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That gang would kill you sooner than look at you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who, me? Bish staggered into a table and caught hold of it."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who'd wanna hurt me? I'm just good ol' Bish Ware. _Good_ ol' Bish! nobody hurt him; he'sh everybody's friend."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Who do you have around Hunters' Hall, and how do I get past them? he asked."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I don't want a clipful from somebody on my own side."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is Second Level Down, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We have a car here, with a couple of men in it. It's watching this approach here. And we have a ship's boat, over here, with three men in it, and a 7-mm machine gun. And another car--no, a jeep, here. Now, up on the First Level Down, we have two ships' boats, one here, and one here. The password is 'Exotic,' and the countersign is 'Organics.' He grinned at Murell."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Compliment to your company."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good enough. I'll want a bottle of liquor. My breath needs a little touching up, and I may want to offer somebody a drink. If I could get inside that place, there's no telling what I might be able to do. If one man can get in and put a couple of guards to sleep, an army can get in after him."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't worry, Walt, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is strictly for protective coloration--and odoration. I shall be quite sparing with it, I assure you."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, we'd better get back to the docks before it starts, Corkscrew was saying."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No hunter crew will follow anybody but their own ships' officers."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We'll have to have somebody the uptown people will follow, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "These people won't take orders from a woolly-pants hunter captain. How about you, Sigurd?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Ralph Boyd's the man for that,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Ralph's needed right here; this is G.H.Q., Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is a job that's going to have to be run from one central command. We've got to make sure the demonstration against Hallstock and the operation against Hunters' Hall are synchronized."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have about a hundred and fifty workmen, and they all have or can get something to shoot with, another man said. I looked around, and saw that it was Casmir Oughourlian, of Rodriguez & Oughourlian Shipyards."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They'll follow me, but I'm not too well known uptown."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Hey, Professor Hartzenbosch, Mohandas Feinberg said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You're a respectable-looking duck; you ever have any experience leading a lynch mob?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've had a lot of experience with children, the professor said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Children are all savages. So are lynch mobs. Things that are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Yes, I'd say so."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "All right, Dad said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Say I'm Chief of Staff, or something. Oscar, you and Joe and Corkscrew and the rest of you decide who's going to take over-all command of the hunters. Casmir, you'll command your workmen, and anybody else from the shipyards and engine works and repair shops and so on. Sigurd, you and the Reverend, here, and Professor Hartzenbosch gather up all the uptown people you can. Now, we'll have to decide on how much force we need to scare Mort Hallstock, and how we're going to place the main force that will attack Hunters' Hall."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I think we ought to wait till we see what Bish Ware can do, Oscar said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Get our gangs together, and find out where we're going to put who, but hold off the attack for a while. If he can get inside Hunters' Hall, we may not even need this demonstration at the Municipal Building."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Shut up! Dad roared, the loudest I'd ever heard him speak."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Shut up and listen!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Fourth Ward, Bottom Level, a voice from the fire-alarm speaker said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "This is a tallow-wax fire. It is not the Co-op wax; it is wax stored in an otherwise disused area. It is dangerously close to stored 50-mm cannon ammunition, and it is directly under the pulpwood lumber plant, on the Third Level Down, and if the fire spreads up to that, it will endanger some of the growing vats at the carniculture plant on the Second Level Down. I repeat, this is a tallow-wax fire. Do not use water or chemical extinguishers."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That diversion idea of mine was all right, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The only trouble was that Steve Ravick thought of it first."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You think he started the fire? Dad began, and then gave a sourer laugh than Oscar's."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Am I dumb enough to ask that?"
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Better leave that, Walt, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You don't want to get into any shooting."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know what all crawls into the Bottom Level, I reminded him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If you don't, ask Mr. Murell, here. One sent him to the hospital."
}
]
|
19478 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Well, stay out of any fighting. Your job's to get the news, not play hero in gun fights. I'm no hero; that's why I'm sixty years old. I never knew many heroes that got that old."
}
]
|
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