Summers said desperately, through clenched teeth, "You're wrong. You're wrong."
"Am I? You're a brave man, Summers, when you've got fifty against two. Let's see you stay brave against a needle-gun. They're hard to aim, of course, and I might miss."
He clenched his fist again, and this time the pop of the discharge was sharply ear-splitting and the flash dazzled all the spectators but Bigman, who, of them all, was the only one who knew exactly when to close his eyes for a moment.
Summers emitted a strangled yell. He was untouched except that the top button on his shirt was gone
Bigman said, "Nice aiming if I do say so myself, but I suppose having a run of luck is too much to ask. I'd advise you not to move, Summers. Pretend you're stone, you cobber, because if you do move, I'll miss and feeling a chunk of your skin go will hurt you worse than just losing a button."
Summers closed his eyes. His forehead was glistening with perspiration. Bigman calculated the distance and clenched twice.
Pow! Smack! Two more buttons gone.
"Sands of Mars, my lucky day! Isn't it nice that you've arranged to have no one come around to interfere? Well, one more-for the road."
And this tune Summers yelled in agony. There was a rent in the shirt and reddened skin showed.
"Aw," said Bigman, "not on the nose. Now I'm rattled and I'll probably miss the next by two inches… Unless you're ready to say something, Summers."
"All right," yelled the other. ''I've fixed it."
Bigman said mildly, "Your man was heavier. Your man had experience and still you couldn't leave it a fair fight. You don't take any chances, do you? Drop what you're holding… Don't the rest of you move, though. From here on in, it's a fair fight in the corridor. No one's moving until someone climbs out of the corridor."
He paused and glared as his fist with the needle-gun moved slowly from side to side. "But if it's your ball of gristle that comes back, I'll just be a bit disappointed. And when I'm disappointed, there's no telling what I'll do. I just might be disappointed and mad enough to fire this needle-gun into the crowd, and there isn't a thing in the world any of you can do to stop me from clenching my fist ten times. So if there are ten of you bored with living, just hope that your boy beats Lucky Starr."
Bigman waited there desperately, his right hand holding the needle-gun, his left arm crooked over the V-frog in its container. He longed to order Summers to bring the two men back, to end the fight, but he dared not risk Lucky's anger. He knew Lucky well enough to know that the fight couldn't be allowed to end by default on Lucky's side.
A figure whizzed past the line of sight, then another. There was a crash as of a body hitting a wall, then a second and a third. Then silence.
A figure drifted back, with a second gripped firmly by one ankle.
The person in control came lightly out into the corridor; the person being held followed and dropped like a sack of sand.
Bigman let out a shout. The man standing was Lucky. His cheek was bruised and he limped, but it was Armand who was unconscious.
They brought Armand back to consciousness with some difficulty. He had a lump on his skull resembling a small grapefruit, and one eye was swollen closed. Though his lower lip was bleeding, he managed a painful smile and said, "By Jupiter, this kid's a wildcat."
He got to his feet and threw his arms about Lucky in a bear hug. "It was like tangling with ten men after he got his bearings. He's all right."
Surprisingly, the men were cheering wildly. The V-frog transmitted relief first, swallowed up at once by excitement
Armand's smile widened, and he dabbed at the blood with the back of his hand. "This councilman is all right. Anyone who still doesn't like him has to fight me, too. Where's Red?"
But Red Summers was gone. So was the instrument he had dropped at Bigman's order.
Annand said, "Listen, Mr. Starr, I've got to tell you. This wasn't my idea, but Red said we had to get rid of you or you'd make trouble for all of us."
Lucky raised his hand. "That's a mistake. Listen, all of you. There'll be no trouble for any loyal Earthman. I guarantee it. This fight is off the record. It was a bit of excitement, but we can forget it. Next time we meet, we all meet fresh. Nothing's happened. Right?"
They cheered madly and there were shouts of "He's all right" and "Up the Council!"
Lucky was turning to go when Armand said, "Hey, wait." He drew in a vast breath and pointed a thick finger. "What's this?" He was pointing to the V-frog.
"A Venusian animal," said Lucky. "A pet of ours."
"It's cute." The giant simpered down at it. The others crowded close to stare at it and make appreciative comments, to seize Lucky's hand and assure him that they had been on his side all along.
Bigman, outraged at the shoving, finally yelled, "Let's get to quarters, Lucky, or I swear I'll kill a few of these guys."
There was an instant silence and men squeezed back to make a path for Lucky and Bigman.
Lucky winced as Bigman applied cold water to the bruised cheek in the privacy of their quarters
He said, "Some of the men were saying something about needle-guns in that final crush, but in the confusion I didn't get the story straight. Suppose you tell me, Bigman."
Reluctantly Bigman explained the circumstances.
Lucky said thoughtfully, "I realized that my controls were off, but I assumed mechanical failure particularly since they came back after my second fall. I didn't know you and Red Summers were fighting it out over me."
Bigman grinned. "Space, Lucky, you didn't think I'd let that character pull a trick like that?"
"There might have been some way other than needle-guns."
"Nothing else would have frozen them so," said Bigman, aggrieved. "Did you want me to shake my finger at them and say, 'Naughty, naughty?' Besides, I had to scare the green bejeebies out of them."
"Why?" Lucky said sharply.
"Sands of Mars, Lucky, you spotted the other guy two falls when the fighting was fixed, and I didn't know if you had enough left to make out. I was going to make Summers call the fight off."
"That would have been bad, Bigman. We would have gained nothing. There would have been men convinced the cry of 'foul' was an unsportsmanlike fake."
"I knew you'd figure that, but I was nervous."
"No need to be. After my controls started responding properly, things went fairly well. Armand was certain he had me, and when he found there was still fight in me, the fight seemed to go out of him. That happens sometimes with people who have never had to lose
When they don't win at once, it confuses them, and they don't win at all."
"Yes, Lucky," said Bigman, grinning.
Lucky was silent for a minute or two, then he said, "I don't like that 'Yes, Lucky.' What did you do?"
"Well-" Bigman applied the final touch of flesh tint to hide the bruise and stepped back to consider his handiwork critically-"I couldn't help but hope that you'd win, now could I?"
"No, I suppose not."
"And I told everyone in that place that if Armand won, I would shoot as many of them as I could."
"You weren't serious."
"Maybe I was. Anyway, they thought I was; they were sure I was after they saw me needle four buttons off that cobber's shirt. So there were fifty guys there, even including Summers, who were sweating themselves blind hoping you would win and Armand lose."
Lucky said, "So that's it."
"Well, I couldn't help it if the V-frog was there and transmitted all those thoughts to you too, could I?"
"So all the fight went out of Armand because his mind was blanketed with wishes he would lose." Lucky looked chagrined.
"Remember, Lucky. Two foul falls. It wasn't a fair fight."