"Excuse me a minute," said Ray, pocketing his winnings. "I'll be back, and then we'll play for real stakes."
"You bet," said the sharks. They sat back, lit anticipatory cigars, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Ray found the redhead remarkably easy to pry from the colonel.
The girl thought it would be just too much fun to go slumming and have the captain's dinner with him in the third-class saloon. He led her down the thrumming corridor, thinking wistfully that before he knew it he'd be in Ganymede City and as broke as he'd been to start with.
Urushkidan crawled slowly by, waving an idle tentacle at him. The Martian walking system was awkward under Earth gravity and, their table manners being worse than atrocious, they ate in a separate section. It was Dyann who really started the trouble. She strode up behind Ray and clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder.
"Vere have you been?" she asked reproachfully. "You have not been in our cabin for two days and nights now."
The redhead blushed.
"Oh hullo, Dyann," said Ray, annoyed. "I'll see you later."