"That's the first good idea any one of you crackpots has had for five years," Macey said, suddenly. "But wouldn't transportation of material and so on present problems?"
"No; just buying it," Garlock said, soberly. "Oh, rather, paying for it."
"No trouble there...."
"What?" Belle exclaimed. "'No trouble,' it says here in fine print? How the old skinflint has changed—instead of screaming his head off about spending money he's actually offering to. Frank, I'll loan you three credits!"
"Hush, honey-chile, the men-folks are talking man-business. Look, Clee. We'll use the Pleiades at first, while we're building a regular transport. A hundred passengers per trip, one thousand credits one way...."
"Wow!" Belle put in. "Our ex-skinflint is now a bare-faced, legally-protected robber."
"By no means, Belle," Evans said. "How much would that be per mile?"
"Say ten round trips per day. That would be twenty million a day gross for a small ship not intended for passenger service. When we get ships built ... and the extras...." The money-man went into a financial revel of his own.
"Lots of extras," Banks agreed. "And oh, brother, what a public-relations dream of heaven!"
"Maybe I'm dumb," Garlock broke in, "but just what are you going to use for money to get started?"