Kitty stared at Bill accusingly. "It was a nice trick," she said. "But what makes you think they'll get any caviar?"
There was a grin on Bill's square face. "Simple," he said. "With your money, Webster's transmitter and my brain, I cornered the Interworld caviar market. Our company owns every speck of caviar that exists."
"But why?"
"Don't look so dazed, I organized the caviar to line up popular support behind me. All that I needed was the confidence of the Uvans because I've figured out a way of exploiting the etheroel wells without harming the Uvans."
Bill looked around triumphantly. "You want to hear?" he added.
"It's wonderful, Bill," Kitty murmured.
"You mean they won't dissolve?" asked Webster. A look of hope entered his eyes. "Will it work for whiskey too?"
Bill shook his head. "Afraid not," he said. "You see I did a lot of freebooting in chemistry when I worked for the Fuel Monopoly. I discovered you could hydrate etheroel the same as you hydrate diethyl ether. You just evaporate etheroel on thick blotting paper, subject it to a temperature of twenty-six degrees Fahrenheit and it becomes solid. We'll have Earthmen or Martians handle that operation. After it's solid, it won't harm the Uvans. They'll be able to ship it out. We'll dehydrate on some clearing planetoid."
"Excellent! Excellent!"