"Why not?"
We went in and got the room number from the clerk and went on up. We knocked. Dalrymple opened the door. He hadn't changed a bit. There was a sneer on his face, hostility in his voice when he said, "Ha—the police force. What happened? Somebody steal your squad car?".
He turned around before we could answer and went back into the room. We followed him and stood there looking at the layout. He had a big table in the middle of the floor and there was a huge sheet of paper on it. The sheet was almost completely covered with the funny symbols he'd used in solving the bar poisoning. Or had he solved it?
Anyhow, he went back to his work as though we hadn't even come—adding more symbols along one edge—and finally Donovan asked, "What in the hell are you doing?"
Dalrymple looked up as though annoyed at being disturbed. "I'm arranging to stay on your planet. I like it here."
"But what's all that got to do with staying?"
"I have to have money. The way things are done here, money is vitally necessary."
"How are you going to get it?"
Dalrymple looked up and his sneer brightened. "I'm going to steal it."
Donovan and I looked at each other in a kind of double-take. Then I said, "I don't suppose you'd care to tell us how and where you're going to do the stealing?"