“Beautiful!” Dragur crawled the flitter across an intersection of avenues, turned into the slightly wider one that led to the outskirts of Tikil. “He will never believe it—never! Next Fellowsday I shall invite him and, say, Wilvins and Sorker. And then I shall escort him around the room, show him the Lupan snails, and the throwworms, give him a chance to enlarge on what he has—then—“ Dragur lifted one hand from the controls, reached out to pat the top of the container now riding on Troy’s knees. “Then—the hur-hur! He will never, never be able to match it. Never!”
For the first time the small man seemed to recollect he did have a human companion in the flitter. “That is correct, is it not, young man? When Merchant Kyger gives a certificate of one-of-a-kind, he does not import during the lifetime of the first specimen? That is truly correct?”
Troy had not heard of that arrangement, but prudence dictated a reply in the affirmative. “I believe so, Citizen.”
“Then Mazeli will never have a hur-hur—never! Their life span is two hundred years—maybe three— and Kyger has certified that this is a young one. Oh, Mazeli may wish but he cannot have! Not one such as you, my little beauty!” Dragur delivered another pat to the top of the cylinder. And perhaps some of this elation did register on the monstrosity inside, for the thing gave such a determined lurch against one side that Troy had to hold it steady with both hands.
“Careful! Careful! I say, young man! What are you doing?” Dragur brought the flitter to a complete stop and fronted Troy indignantly.
“I think it is excited, Citizen.” Troy held the quivering container with both hands. “It probably wants back in an aquarium.”
“Yes, of course.” This time Dragur started the flitter with a jerk, and his rate of speed increased appreciably. “We shall soon be there, very soon now—“
Dragur had one of the small share-houses along the merchant zone. He unsealed the palm lock of the door with one hand, waved Troy in with the other. But the atmosphere that met Horan upon entrance was any- thing but enticing.
There were strange smells to be met in plenty at Kyger’s, but a clever system of ventilation and deodorization kept the air from anything but a suggestion of the wares to be offered under that roof. Here the marine reek of the fish room at the shop was multiplied a thousand times.
What had been intended as the meeting room of the share-house was now a miniature sea bottom. The light itself was subdued, in a manner greenish, when compared to the daylight entering through specially tinted panels. And aquariums were set along the walls in banks with what might be a naturally formed pool in the center.
“Stand where you are, right where you are, young man!” Dragur pushed ahead, skirted the floor pool, and approached a table in the darkest corner of that dim chamber. He pulled and pushed at an empty aquarium there until he had it in line with its fellows and then proceeded to lift, with every appearance of exertion, a series of glass containers, pouring from first one and then the other, now and then leaning well over to sniff loudly and rather dramatically at the mixture.
Troy shifted his feet. The weight of the container was not light, and it kept jerking on the shoulder strap as the hur-hur continued to resent transportation. Horan was eager to be out of this cave of bad smells and marine monsters, for some of the things that bumped sides of bowls and aquariums to stare at him, or seem to stare at him, were not far removed from the hur-hur in general frightfulness.
At last the concoction appeared to satisfy Dragur. He added, with the air of an artist supplying the last touch to a masterpiece, a long string of what looked like badly decayed root fibers and beckoned to Troy.
Did Dragur think that he was going to transfer the hur-hur via the rod method Jingu had used? If so, this customer was not going to be a satisfied one. Troy had no intention of trying such action.
But apparently Dragur had no idea of leaving such a delicate task to a novice. He waved Troy away again as soon as the other had put down the container and took off the lid. Playing the hur-hur into clinging once more to the rod, the little man whipped the creature with even more dexterity than Jingu had displayed into its new home.
“Now!” Dragur gave the shop container back to Troy. “We must let it alone, strictly alone, two days—maybe three—only visiting it for feeding.”
Troy wondered if the other imagined that he was going to be in this smelly room for another few moments, let alone two or three days!
“Is that all, Citizen?” He asked firmly.
Dragur again seemed to notice him as a person. “What? Ha—yes, that will be all, young man. I have not seen you before, have I? You did not come with me last time for a delivery.”
“No. I am new at Kyger’s.”
“Yes, it was Zul who came last time, I remember. And who are you, young man?”
“Troy Horan.”
“Horan? Horan—that is an off-world name, surely?”
“I am from Norden,” Troy returned as he edged toward the outer door with its promise of fresh air.
“Norden?” Dragur blinked as if trying to visualize some solar chart on which he could place Norden with dispatch and precision. “You are a former spacer then, as is Merchant Kyger?”
“I am from the Dipple.”
“Oh.” Dragur displayed the conventional citizen’s reaction to that, embarrassment intermixed with irritation. “Assure Merchant Kyger that I am pleased, very pleased. I shall be in myself, of course, with my supply list. And please remind him that this is a one-of-a-species sale—that must be plain, very plain.”
“I am sure the merchant understands, Citizen.” Dragur followed him to the door, pointed out the nearest roll walk. He did not reenter the house until Troy was several paces away. Probably, thought Horan bitterly, he just wants to make sure a Dippleman & well off the premises.
But this was not the end of a day of minor irritations and disappointments. The morning had begun so well with the awakening in the lodge of the Wild. It was ending in the evening in Tikil with his re-entering the shop to discover Zul very much the master of the cage room. Though the small yellow man walked with a limp, he walked briskly, and he did not welcome Troy back.
End of the seven-day contract—Troy was very conscious of that. He could continue here to the limit of that time and then Kyger was under no obligation to renew. With Zul back he probably would not. When Troy brought in water for the fox cage, the other waved him off, attending to the Terran animals himself. In fact he zealously preempted so many of the tasks Troy had done that the latter was elbowed out of the work almost entirely. And each time Horan saw Kyger he expected to be told that his employment would be over as soon as it was legally possible to dismiss him.
However, the merchant said nothing—until a few moments immediately preceding the official closing of the shop. Then Troy was summoned to where Kyger and Zul stood by the door of the animal room. And he could see that Zul was not pleased.
“You will take the night inspection tours as usual,” Kyger ordered. His broad fingers rested on Zul’s shoulder, and now he pulled the smaller man with him as easily as if Zul were powerless in his hold. The yellow man favored Troy with a glare that made the latter wish, not for the first time, that he had a right to wear a belt knife.
With the shop closed and the animals settled, Troy made his first round, starting with the now silent customer’s lounges, checking each room. What he was hunting, or why he had this growing compulsion that was almost a search, he could not have told.
The lounges contained nothing out of the ordinary; the bird room was as always. He lingered before the fussel. It was hard to remember this morning. The bird permitted him to run a forefinger along its crest, drew the bill that could stab and kill across his hand in return.
Then he was in the animal room. And now he thought he knew what had driven him to this restless seeking. What had become of the kinkajou? No one had mentioned it since his return. The foxes had been settled in its place as if they had been there for days. Had it been returned to the Sattor Commander Di’s heirs as a valuable part of his estate?
Suddenly Troy knew that he would have to discover what had become of the animal that had claimed his aid and that he might have unknowingly left unprotected, for he remembered all too well the strange conversation in the night.