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yourself here without piling a coma into the bargain."
"Perchance to dream? No, a prolonged sleep certainly wouldn't be a good idea,
here," Ethan agreed.
"You'd never know quite when you finally froze. And I don't want to miss that
when it happens."
September nodded. "Ought to he interesting at that. Won-der how a body'd
freeze here. From the top down or the inside out?" He crossed arms and slapped
opposite shoulders. "What do you know about this refrigerated habitat? I only
took the standard general tourist mestape- language, highlights, so forth. So
did the little fellow-Williams. I think he'll be okay. Quiet. Not taciturn,
just likes to keep to himself. And that un-speakable fermentation, Walther,
can surely manage the local patois. Although I'd sooner remove his tongue
before I'd let him do any translating. You?"
"Well I'm a salesman, and-"
September didn't let hire continue. "And so you've stuffed yourself as full of
verbs and prepositional phrases and epiglot-tal stops as a grilled pepper!
Excellent, young feller."
Ethan shrugged. "It's no more than anyone else in my position would have done.
I also had a few general planetary tapes on native conditions-cultural stuff,
flora and fauna, the like. Just business."
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"Or survival." He gave Ethan a friendly pat on the back that made him cough
even with thick padding to insulate the blow. "Fine foresight, lad. Exemplary!
As of now, you're in charge."
"Hub?" Somehow Ethan got the feeling he'd missed an important paragraph or two
in amongst the praise. "In charge of what?"
"Why, in charge of seeing our little party return safely to civilization, of
course. Expedition's got to have a leader. I hereby appoint myself your
faithful deputy. When can we expect to come in sight of the nearest bar,
commander?" Under the brows, there was a twinkle.
"Now wait a minute," put in Ethan hastily, "I think you've formed some wrong
ideas about me. I'm not the leader type. Anyway, what about you? You seem,
plenty competent. The way you handled that chap Kotabit-"
"Yes, well, that's a nice ability to have .certain times," September agreed,
studying his clumsy mittens, "but rather limited. Besides, he's dead. That
particular problem will not require further attention. Now, I have this
tendency to get impatient with people and break heads when patting them would
be more practical. Darned if I can figure out why, but they seem to feel
threatened by me when I've but the kindest of intentions in mind.
"What is needed is a cool, reasonable hand experienced at working with people
and changing quickly in unfamiliar situ-ations without making folks feel
threatened. Doesn't it take all that to change in mid-pitch from one sales
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talk to another? Presence of mind and quick thought, lad."
"Sure, but-"
"Persuasive without being overbearing. .A diplomat."
Ethan finally succeeded in stalling the unending enumer-ation of his virtues.
"Look, I'm not sure selling Poupee-de-Oui Scent No. 7 exactly qualifies me as
a combination of
Metternich and Amundsen."
"But it's helped you convince people that white is black and good for 'em.
Here all you, have do to is convince em white is white. Duck soup."
"All right, all right. I accept."
"Thought you would."
"Only because you think it's necessary. And only tem-porarily, mind." He
started fumbling with the catches on his jacket. "Now as leader of this
expedition, my first order, effective now, is that you put this suit on. It's
obviously built for someone constructed more along your lines. If there's
anything I despise, it's waste, and I'm swimming an it."
"Sorry, lad." September put out a hand and halted the unsnapping. "You're in
charge, agreed. But this is still a free society, not a dictatorship. That
means any decision ought to be ratified by a majority vote. Since you and I
are the only ones present, it's up to us. Well?"
"I vote for you to put this coat on."
"And I vote for you to keep it. How much do you weigh?"
"Hub?" That was Ethan's second use of that brilliant ex-pletive in a few
minutes. Ali, the dazzle of a rapier-sharp wit! He murmured a reply.
"I thought about that much," said September. "You lose."
"Look, you'll make better use of it," Ethan argued. "You're more the explorer
type than I am. I
can manage without it."
"No, you cannot manage without it," September said sharply, not grinning. "And
if this wind gets much worse," he continued, turning into the rising breeze,
"we're all going to wish for a
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