Chapter 6

“Hello, Tom?”

The telephone rattled in a peeved sort of way. “Yes, it is. What now? And when am I going to see you in a social sort of way again?”

“Not for a long, long time; I’m busy. I’m busy right now as a matter of fact. I’m calling up the vice-president of Faragaut Interplanetary Lines, and I want to place an order.”

“Why bother me? We have clerks, you know, for that sort of thing,” suggested Faragaut in a pained voice.

“Tom, do you know how much I’m worth now?”

“Not much,” replied Faragaut promptly. “What of it? I hear, as a matter of fact that you’re worth even less in a business way. They’re talking quite a lot down this way about an alleged bank you’re setting up on Luna. I hear it’s got more protective devices, and armor than any IP station in the System, that you even had it designed by an IP designer, and have a gang of Colonels and Generals in charge. I also hear that you’ve succeeded in getting rid of money at about one million dollars a day--just slightly shy of that.”

“You overestimate me, my friend. Much of that is merely contracted for. Actually it’ll take me nearly nine months to get rid of it. And by that time I’ll have more. Anyway, I think I have something like ten million left. And remember that way back in the twentieth century some old fellow beat my record. Armour, I think it was, lost a million dollars a day for a couple of months running.

“Anyway, what I called you up for was to say I’d like to order five hundred thousand tons of mercury, for delivery as soon as possible.”

“What! Oh, say, I thought you were going in for business.” Faragaut gave a slight laugh of relief.

“Tom, I am. I mean exactly what I say. I want five--hundred--thousand--tons of metallic mercury, and just as soon as you can get it.”

“Man, there isn’t that much in the system.”

“I know it. Get all there is on the market for me, and contract to take all the ‘Jupiter Heavy-Metals’ can turn out. You send those orders through, and clean out the market completely. Somebody’s about to pay for the work I’ve been doing, and boy, they’re going to pay through the nose. After you’ve got that order launched, and don’t make a christening party of the launching either, why just drop out here, and I’ll show you why the value of mercury is going so high you won’t be able to follow it in a space ship.”

“The cost of that,” said Faragaut, seriously now, “will be about--fifty-three million at the market price. You’d have to put up twenty-six cash, and I don’t believe you’ve got it.”

Buck laughed. “Tom, loan me a dozen million, will you? You send that order through, and then come see what I’ve got. I’ve got a break, too! Mercury’s the best metal for this use--and it’ll stop gamma rays too!”

“So it will--but for the love of the system, what of it?”

“Come and see--tonight. Will you send that order through?”

“I will, Buck. I hope you’re right. Cash is tight now, and I’ll probably have to put up nearer twenty million, when all that buying goes through. How long will it be tied up in that deal, do you think?”

“Not over three weeks. And I’ll guarantee you three hundred percent--if you’ll stay in with me after you start. Otherwise--I don’t think making this money would be fair just now.”

“I’ll be out to see you in about two hours, Buck. Where are you? At the estate?” asked Faragaut seriously.

“In my lab out there. Thanks, Tom.”

McLaurin was there when Tom Faragaut arrived. And General Logan, and Colonel Gerardhi. There was a restrained air of gratefulness about all of them that Tom Faragaut couldn’t quite understand. He had been looking up Buck Kendall’s famous bank, and more and more he had begun to wonder just what was up. The list of stockholders had read like a list of IP heroes and executives. The staff had been a list of IP men with a slender sprinkling of accountants. And the sixty-million dollar structure was to be a bank without advertising of any sort! Usually such a venture is planned and published months in advance. This had sprung up suddenly, with a strange quietness.

Almost silently, Buck Kendall led the way to the laboratory. A small metal tank was supported in a peculiar piece of apparatus, and from it led a small platinum pipe to a domed apparatus made largely of insulum. A little pool of mercury, with small red crystals floating in it rested in a shallow hollow surrounded by heavy conductors.