The patrols were tough and relentless. They shot first and then asked questions.
Jarl used the lamp to reassure himself, even though Waltk grunted when anything out of the ordinary appeared, describing it to his companion.
Their first sleep came when Jarl Gare judged they had come almost a third of the distance to the pearl-beds. He suppressed the hunger pains in his belly by telling Waltk again the story of the Venusian pearls. They lay in a cradle of a great tree whose five great arms spread out from the trunk.
"I saw one once, Waltk," Jarl Gare said, and his voice was soft. "It was back on Earth, and it was the property of one of the richest men on Earth—Voltane, inventor of the force field that protects space cruisers from asteroids and space fragments. He gave half his wealth for it. And he was rated as worth four million credits."
"Two million credits for a jewel? He was a fool," Waltk said.
"Ah, but, Waltk, you should have seen it. He displayed it once a month in public. And the crowds that gathered.... It was gray, but it pulsed and throbbed as it were alive."
Waltk said seriously, "I did not know the pearls were gray. I had heard they were pink or red or orange. I never heard of a gray one."
"Nor had I," Jarl Gare nodded. "But there it was. It wasn't the color that attracted me, but the life force that seemed to throb within it.
"That day I decided I would have one—though I knew there were only four of them on Earth. But there was no way for me to get to Venus—"
"I know," said Waltk, "You have told me. You were Earthbound because you had been in Earth police custody too often. But you made a plan. Earthmen convicted of treason, murder and other high crimes were sent to The Hole. So you killed a man—"