A NOVELET
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories August 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
CHAPTER I
Trouble on Mars
Jeremy Jedd stood in the igneous dust of the spaceport margin, staringinto the sky and shading his eyes with his arm. Occasionally he checkedthe time by his ristkron, shaking it to make sure it was wound, craningback toward the hunched Customs House and the great clock. The signthere announced placidly that the Pinnacle had reported, was overdue,and would discharge passengers at Gate Three.
Jeremy shook his head and took the letter from Mars out of his pocketagain. Slowly he unfolded it and read, in the manner of a man checkinghis mnemonics. He was certainly familiar enough with it, after so muchre-reading. The letter said:
You must have heard by this time that General Export has installed afabricating plant here, just outside Fort Wargod. It cost them plentyin time and money to get it set up—actually most of it was shipped ashand luggage because of the shipping space situation.
Like a lot of other people, I thought it was a foolish move, becausethe finished piping they could have shipped in the space is at such apremium on Mars, and because their plant is going to require power—ahard thing to get here. I didn't worry too much, though. Why should wecare what our competitors do with their money?
But here's the joker. In spite of the fact that the plant is smalland comparatively crude, it will fabricate pipe. And the material isplastic, chum, and they can now ship it in sheets! I don't have totell you what that means to us. We only got our cargo-space contractsfrom General Export because the Government okayed our shippingsystem—nesting the smaller diameters of pipe inside the largerones. Genex's own pipe is shipped that way now, too. The idea isn'tpatentable.
So unless we find a patentable way to ship pipe in less space,finished, than Genex is taking for their sheet-stock, we're done,brother—wiped out. Genex means to get everything in the ColonialSystem—you know that. They have all the ships now, and most of thegoods and services. I'm afraid we're going on the long list of smalloperators who have tried to buck them.
Jeremy lowered the letter and rubbed his eyes again. They ached. Sincehe had received it a week ago, he hadn't slept much. Supplying pipefor the Mars project was work enough without these long nights in thelaboratory trying to figure a way out of this spot. Everything he andHal had in the world was in this deal. They had worked together eversince they left school, right up until the time Hal went up to handlethe Mars end.
Fervently he wished it were the other way around. If Hal were here,he'd dope out something. He had always been the real brains of Jedd &Jedd. And as a matter of fact, Hal already had doped out something.What an irony! Whatever his process or system was, he couldn't write itor wire it. General Export carried the mails too, and if they wanted tofind something out, it would be only too easy.
Jeremy looked up again. There was a growing, gleaming dot in the sky.He glanced at the building. Near it, men were manning the heatprooflaunch. He turned back to the letter, to read the cryptic part aboutPhyllis Exeter:
I know a way to whip this, bud. I'm not telling you about it in aletter—you know why. I'm hoping and praying that you'll figure it outyourself. The new haul