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"I cannot promise anything yet except that I will try. Now you finish dressing. I will be down in the bar.
And I will call up this girl I know. We deserve a celebration!"
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Peri was tall. Peri was slim. Peri smoldered when she walked and exploded when she stretched. Her
apartment was ivory and ebony, her sea-green dress was poured on, and the Neo-Cretan mode had
obviously been engineered to her personal specifications.
She waved twelve inches of jade cigaret holder, lifted her glass, and murmured throatily: "To you, Pete.
To Mars."
"I, I, I," stammered Matheny. He raised his own glass. It sjopped over. "Oh, damn! I mean . .. gosh, I'm
so sorry, I "
"No harm done. You aren't used to our gravity yet," Peri extended a flawless leg out of her slit skirt and
turned it about on the couch, presumably in search of a more comfortable position. "And it must seem
terribly cramped here on Earth, Pete," she continued, "after roaming the desert, hunting, sleeping under
the twin moons. Two moons! Why, what girl could resist that?"
"Uh, well, as a matter of fact, the moons are barely visible," floundered Matheny.
Peri pouted, dimpling her cheeks. "Must you spoil my dreams?" she said. "When I think of Mars, the
frontier, where men are still men, why, my breast swells with emotion."
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The Unicorn Trade
"Uh, yes." Matheny gulped. "Swell. Yes."
She leaned closer to his chair. "Now that I've got you, don't think you'll get away," she smiled. "A live
Martian, trapped!"
Doran looked at his watch. "Well," he said, "I have got to get up tomorrow, so I had better run along
now."
"Ta-ta," said Peri. Matheny rose. She pulled him down beside her. "Oh, no, you don't. Mars lad. I'm not
through with you yet!"
"But, but, but," said Matheny.
Doran chuckled. "I'll meet you on the Terrace at fourteen hundred hours tomorrow," he said. "Have fun,
Pete."
The door closed on him.
Peri slithered toward her guest. He felt a nudge and looked down. She had not actually touched him with
her hands. "Gus is a good squiff," she said, "but I wondered if he'd ever go."
"Why, why . .. what do you mean?" croaked Matheny.
"Haven't you guessed?" she whispered.
She kissed him. It was rather like being caught in a; nuclear turbine, with soft blades.
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Matheny, said Matheny, you represent your planet.
Matheny, said Matheny, shut up.
Time passed.
"Have another drink," said Peri, "while I slip into something more comfortable."
Her idea of comfort was modest in one sense of the word: a nightdress or something, like a breath of
smoke, and a seat on Matheny's lap.
THE INNOCENT ARRIVAL
79
"If you kiss me like that just once more," she breathed, "I'll forget I'm a nice girl."
Matheny kissed her like that.
The door crashed open. A large man stood there, breathing heavily. "What are you doing with my wife?"
he bawled.
"Sam!" screamed Peri. "I thought you were in Australia!"
" and he said he might settle out of court," finished Matheny. He stared in a numb fashion at his beer.
"He'll come to my hotel room this afternoon. What am I going to do?"
"It is a great shame," said Doran. "I never thought . .. you know, he told everybody he would be gone on
business for weeks yet Pete, I am more sorry than I can express."
"If he thinks I'll pay his miserable blackmail," bristled Matheny, "he can take his head and stick "
Doran shook his own. "I am sorry, Pete, but I would pay if I was you. He does have a case. It is too
bad he just happened to be carrying that loaded camera, but he is a photographer and now, well, our
laws on Earth are pretty strict about unlicensed corespondents. You could be very heavily fined as well
as deported, plus all the civil damage claims and the publicity. It would ruin your mission and even make
trouble for the next man Mars sent."
"But," stuttered Matheny, "b-but it's a badger game!"
"Look," said Doran. He leaned over the table and gripped the Martian's shoulder. "I am your
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The Unicorn Trade
friend, see? I feel real bad this happened. In a way it is my fault and I want to help you. So let me go talk
to Sam Wendt. I will cool him down if I can. I will talk down his figure. It will still cost you, Pete, but
fout, you can pad your expense account, can't you? So we will both come see you today. That way there
will be two people on your side, you and me, and Sam will not throw his weight around so much. You
pay up in cash and it will be the end of the affair. I will see to that, pal!"
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Matheny stared at the small dapper man. His aloneness came to him like a blow in the stomach. Et tu,
Brute, he thought.
He bit his lip. "Thanks, Gus," he said. "You are a real friend."
Sam blocked the doorway with his shoulders as he entered the room. Doran followed like a diminutive
tug pushing a very large liner. They closed the door. Matheny stood up, avoiding Sam's glare.
"Okay, louse," harshed Sam. "You got a better pal here than you deserve, but he ain't managed to talk
me into settling for nothing."
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