As a slow lightening of the cloud blanket indicated dawn, Sadie and Frank took places among some fifty Incors who were heading out from Venusport into Wildoatia. Like the others, they were dressed in heavy coveralls. Each carried a Tommygun, a knapsack stuffed with food and necessities, and a money belt containing the five thousand gold dollars without which no man or woman was allowed to cross the last frontier.
The Incors were a wild lot; mostly young, high-spirited or spoiled people who rebelled at the strict moral standards of United Stars. In spite of themselves, both Frank and the girl felt strongly drawn to this group. They felt no sympathy for a scattering of older Incors whose hardbitten faces indicated that they had run afoul of U.S. law and were being "shipped over", the only major punishment permitted within the solar system.
"Say, chum." A beetlebrowed youth sidled over to Sadie as they left the port and plunged into the sweating jungle. "Do you reckon it's as tough in Wildoatia as they make out in that indoctrination course?"
"It's plenty tough," she answered out of the corner of her mouth.
"Been there before?"
"What's it to you?" As he started to protest she added: "The first law of Wildoatia is not to ask personal questions."
"Watch him," the girl whispered to Frank as Beetlebrow retreated. "I smell Pumper."
"Oh, he's just a dumb kid."
"Mebbe so. Mebbe so. Watch him anyway."