Special Deliverance by Clifford D. Simak Read Free Book Online Page A

paper or metal, that has a stated value. It is used to pay for goods or services. You must use it, certainly, to buy what you need, your food and clothing.”
    “We do not buy,” she said. “We give. I give my poems and my songs. Others give me food and clothing as I have need of them.”
    “A perfect communistic society,” said Lansing.
    “I see no reason for all of you to look so shocked and puzzled,” Jurgens said. “Sandra’s way is the only sensible way for a society to operate.”
    “Which means, I suppose,” said the Brigadier, “that you have no money, either.”
    He turned to Mine Host and said, “Sorry, old chap. It seems you’re out of luck.”
    “Hold up for a moment,” said Lansing. To Mine Host he said, “Does it sometimes happen that only one member of a group carries money? Money possibly supplied by the agency that has initiated each particular wild goose chase?”
    “It sometimes happens that way,” said Mine Host. “As a matter of fact, it almost always happens that way.”
    “Then why didn’t you say so?”
    “Well,” said Mine Host, licking his lips, “a man can never know. And he must be careful.”
    “Do I gather,” asked the Parson, “that you, Mr. Lansing, are the treasurer for our group?”
    “It would seem so,” Lansing said. “I wondered at the time.”
    He took one of the golden coins out of his jacket pocket and flipped it to the innkeeper.
    “That is honest gold,” he said, not knowing if it was or not. “How far can that coin cover us?”
    “Two more like this,” said Mine Host, “will take care of the meal tonight, the night’s lodgings and tomorrow’s breakfast.”
    “I think, Mr. Lansing,” said the Parson, “that he may be gouging you.”
    “I think so, too,” said Lansing. “I think the one coin might cover all of it. But out of sheer generosity, I’ll give you another, but no more.”
    Mine Host whined. “With costs going up and labor so expensive…”
    “One more,” said Lansing, holding up the second coin, “but that is all.”
    “All right,” said Mine Host. “The next group may prove more generous.”
    The Parson said, “I still think it’s too much.”
    Lansing flipped the coin, and the innkeeper grabbed it with a swoop of his flabby hand.
    “It well may be too much,” Lansing told the Parson, “but I do not wish him saying that we cheated him.”
    Mine Host got slowly to his feet. “When you wish to retire,” he said, “call me and you’ll be shown to your rooms.”
    When he was gone Mary said, “What a strange way to finance an expedition. You could have said nothing, Edward, and hung onto the money.”
    “It wouldn’t have washed,” he said. “He knew that someone had it.”
    “It appears, from this matter of the money,” she said, “that someone sent us here.”
    “Or something.”
    “That is right. Or something. They must want us here quite badly to have paid our way.”
    “In that case wouldn’t you think they would have told us what they wanted?”
    “Yes, one would. We are dealing with strange people.”
    “Mr. Lansing, it may be none of our business,” said the Brigadier, “but I wonder if you’d mind telling us how you got the money.”
    “I’d be glad to,” Lansing said. “First of all, have any of you ever heard of a slot machine?”
    It seemed none of them had.
    “Well, then,” said Lansing, “I’ll tell you a tale of students and of slot machines and of an eccentric friend of mine.”
    He told them and they listened, paying close attention.
    “I must say,” said the Brigadier when Lansing had finished, “that your experience was excessively involved.”
    “All the time that it was happening,” said Lansing, “I had the feeling that I was being taken. And yet I had to go ahead with it. My curiosity drove me to it.”
    “Perhaps it was a good thing that you were driven to it,” said the Brigadier. “Otherwise the rest of us would have been stranded here without a penny to our