"If you kiss me like that just once more," she breathed, "I'll forget I'm a nice girl."
Matheny kissed her like that.
The door crashed open. A large man stood there, breathing heavily. "What are you doing with my wife?" he bawled.
"Sam!" screamed Peri. "I thought you were in Australia!"
"And he said he might settle out of court," finished Matheny. He stared in a numb fashion at his beer. "He'll come to my hotel room this afternoon. What am I going to do?"
"It is a great shame," said Doran. "I never thought.... You know, he told everybody he would be gone on business for weeks yet. Pete, I am more sorry than I can express."
"If he thinks I'll pay his miserable blackmail," bristled Matheny, "he can take his head and stick—"
Doran shook his own. "I am sorry, Pete, but I would pay if I was you. He does have a case. It is too bad he just happened to be carrying that loaded camera, but he is a photographer and our laws on Earth are pretty strict about unlicensed correspondents. You could be very heavily fined as well as deported, plus all the civil-damage claims and the publicity. It would ruin your mission and even make trouble for the next man Mars sent."
"But," stuttered Matheny, "b-but it's a badger game!"