Adventures in the Far Future & Tales of Outer Space — page 225: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

And suddenly | was the not-born-yesterday guy all over again, and reached for the gun belt that hung behind the driver's seat | got it strapped on, got the long-barrelled ion-G out of its holster and then rammed it back in again. If this was the way it was going to be, I’d let whoever it was sweat me to the draw. And they wouldn’t win, either. My engine had been heard, so | made a slow, deliberate business of getting out of the track, and started walking toward the E-M-l’s stem port The Martian track was empty and | kept going. It was quiet—an electric, awful sort of quiet, with just the moan of the slow, cold desert winds playing an invisible blind-man’s- bluff with the shadowy dunes. | got to the port, then switched on the suit’s com-unit. “This is Latham. Who else is-here?” There was an edge on my voice and | didn’t try to take It off. No answer. So | was going to give ’em the business in the next sentence, and that was when the port swung open, Starlight streaming through the glassite helmet of the space- Suited figure that walked through it “I—I do not know how to ask your forgiveness, Mr. Latham. I—lI’m deeply ashamed.” There was a catch in her voice, and the star-shine was doing funny things with her eyes. “Lya-Younger,” | murmured. “Please—l am certain you could have meant no harm.” | wasn’t certain of anything, but what the hell could | say? | dropped my arms to my sides, anyway, and tried to cover up the ion-G that should’ve been hanging back in the track where it belonged. “I am Surprised, of course. You need only have asked, and either Dr. Kruger or myself would have been glad to give you and your colleagues an extensive tour of our ship. You'll understand if we thought—” CORniclooo SS CO