Grandmother Stone snorted. ‘You youngsters have it too easy. When I came to the Moon there was a time when we had nothing but soya beans and coffee powder for three months.’
Meade answered, ‘Hazel, the last time you told us about that it was two months and it was tea instead of coffee.’
‘Young lady, who’s telling this lie? You, or me?’ Hazel stood up and came over to her twin grandsons. ‘What were you two doing on Dan Ekizian’s lot?’
Castor looked at Pollux, who looked back. Castor said cautiously, ‘Who told you that we were there?’
‘Don’t try to kid your grandmother. When you have been on —’
The entire family joined her in chorus: ‘ “- on the Moon as long as I have!” ‘
Hazel sniffed. ‘Sometimes I wonder why I married!’
Her son said, ‘Don’t try to answer that question,’ then continued to his sons, ‘Well, what were you doing there?’
Castor consulted Pollux by eye, then answered, ‘Well, Dad, it’s like this -‘
His father nodded. ‘Your best flights of imagination always start that way. Attend carefully, everybody.’
‘Well, you know that money you are holding for us?’
‘What about it?’
‘Three per cent isn’t very much.’ Mr Stone shook his head vigorously. ‘I will not invest your royalties in some wildcat stock. Financial genius may have skipped my generation but when I turn that money over to you, it will be intact’
‘That’s just it. It worries you. You could turn it over to us now and quit worrying about it.’
‘No. You are too young.’
‘We weren’t too young to earn it’
His mother snickered. ‘They got you, Roger. Come here and I’ll see if I can staunch the blood’
Dr Stone said serenely, ‘Don’t heckle Roger when he is coping with the twins, Mother. Meade, turn a little to the left.’
Mr Stone answered, ‘You’ve got a point there, Cas. But you may still be too young to hang on to it. What is this leading up to?’
Castor signalled with his eyes; Pollux took over. ‘Dad, we’ve got a really swell chance to take that money and put it to work. Not a wildcat stock, not a stock at all. We’ll have every penny right where we can see it, right where we could cash in on it at any time. And in the meantime we’ll be making lots more money.’
‘Hmmm… how?’
‘We buy a ship and put it to work.’
His father opened his mouth; Castor cut in swiftly, ‘We can pick up a Detroiter VII cheap and overhaul it ourselves; we won’t be out a cent for wages.’
Pollux filled in without a break. ‘You’ve said yourself, Dad, that we are both born mechanics; we’ve got the hands for it.’
Castor went on. ‘We’d treat it like a baby because it would be our own.’
Pollux: ‘We’ve both got both certificates, control and power. We wouldn’t need any crew.’
Castor: ‘No overhead — that’s the beauty of it.’
Pollux: ‘so we carry trade goods out to the Asteroids and we bring back a load of high-grade. We can’t lose.’
Castor: ‘Four hundred percent, maybe five hundred.’
Pollux: ‘More like six hundred.’
Castor: ‘And no worries for you.’
Pollux: ‘And we’d be out of your hair.’
Castor: ‘Not late for dinner.’
Pollux had his mouth open when his father again yelled, ‘QUIET!’ He went on, ‘Edith, bring the barrel. This time we use it.’ Mr Stone had a theory, often expressed, that boys should be raised in a barrel and fed through the bunghole. The barrel had no physical existence.
Dr Stone said, ‘Yes, dear,’ and went on modelling.
Grandmother Stone said, ‘Don’t waste your money on a Detroiter. They’re unstable; the gyro system is no good. Wouldn’t have one as a gift. Get a Douglas.’
Mr Stone turned to his mother. ‘Hazel, if you are going to encourage the boys in this nonsense —’
‘Not at all! Not at all! Merely intellectual discussion. Now with a Douglas they could make some money. A Douglas has a very favorable —’
‘Hazel!’
His mother broke off, then said thoughtfully, as if to herself, ‘I know there is free speech on the Moon: I wrote it into the charter myself.’