Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 67 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

THE MAN IN BETWEEN got to have them to stay in business.” “‘More whitewash, Harry?” “No, Jim. I’m just trying to show you how gutless you are.” My fist had travelled almost to his mouth when I managed to stop myself. He was an old man, and the old, like fools and children, are en- titled to certain liberties. Also, he was my partner, and you don’t quarrel with your part- ner while in space, not if you want to return alive you don’t. “It’s easy to blame the company, isn’t it, Jim ? They’re big and bad, and everyone knows it. But what about blaming yourself for a change? You’ve been gypped, not by the company, but by a few men who are: working to- gether at your expense. The company can’t stop them. Law is law, and they operate under the legislature of Earth. But you don’t; you operate under the legislature of the Belt.” He stared at. me. “Those men can only get 17 away with what you let them. If you don’t kick, then why expect others to? This claim jumping isn’t new—you told me that yourself, but what have you done to stop it?’ “It wasn’t my business,” I said. “In the Belt we keep our noses clean.” “And so you got robbed. Still want to keep your nose clean, Jim ?”’ I didn’t answer. In two weeks I tested twenty-seven rocks and not one of them was worth the cost of the thermite charge. We passed others, plenty of them, but they were all radio- marked as registered claims. Morgan’s Cluster filled the radar screen with green fire and I sweated as we dived through the erratic orbits of the fifty-eight asteroids which had caused Morgan’s death. I had to use more fuel than I liked. In the Belt we use the oxy-alcohol mixture, not the atomics of the interplanetary ships. There’s a good reason for it. We don’t have to comiclooks.com