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him no harm, in fact, he felt slightly better. Without ever having been in Imperial
City, he had a better idea than Gregor as to what was, and what was not, sensible.
The meal cost more than he had expected. But even that he decided not to regret.
After his experiences on the plane he needed sustenance. He went out onto the
street contentedly. The neighborhood swarmed with children, and though it was
already dark the play went on relentlessly.
Cayle paused for a moment to watch them. Their ages seemed to vary from about
six to twelve years. Their play was of the group-rhythm type taught in all the
schools, only this was heavily overlaid with a sex-motif that he had never seen
before. He was startled, then rueful.
"Good heavens!" he thought. "I had the reputation for being a devil of a fellow. To
these kids I'd be just plain naive."
He went up to his room, conscious that the young man over whom the elders of
Glay had many times shaken their heads was really a simple, honest souL He
might come to a bad end but it would be because he was too innocent, not the
other way around.
It disturbed him. In Glay there had been a certain pleasure in defying the
conventions. In Glay he had thought of himself as being "city." Lying on the bed
he knew that was true up to a point only. He lacked experience and knowledge,
automatic response and awareness of dangers. His immediate plans must include
remedies for these weaknesses. The vagueness of the purpose disturbed him. He
had an uneasy feeling that he was making stop-gap decisions, that somehow he
was not comprehending the main decision he must make one of these days.
He drifted into sleep, worrying about it. Twice, when he stirred on the edge of
wakening, the thought was still there, unpleasant, urgent, a jarring background to
his first night in the city of dreams. He awoke tired and unhappy. Only gradually
did the uneasiness wear off.
He avoided the expensive automat, eating breakfast for a credit-eighth in a
restaurant that offered personal service and featured "home" cooking. He
regretted his miserliness. The weight of the indigestible meal on his stomach did
not lighten until he was in the Penny Palace, an ornate gambling establishment
on the world famous Avenue of Luck.
According to a guidebook which dealt exclusively with the avenue and its games,
the Penny Palace owners "have put up glitter signs which modestly claim that it is
possible for anyone to come in with a penny and walk out with a million,
meaning, of course, a million credits." Whether or not this good fortune has ever
been achieved the signs do not indicate.
The write-up concluded generously, "The Penny Palace has the distinction of
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having more fifty-fifty games for the number of machines it has in operation than
any other establishment on the Avenue of Luck."
It was that plus the low stakes that interested Cayle. His immediate plans did not
include walking out "with a million." He wanted five hundred credits to begin
with. After that-well, then he could afford to enlarge his horizon.
He laid bis first bet on a machine that pumped the words odd and even into a
swirling pool of light. When ten of each had been pumped into the pool the
liquid-looking stuff suffered a chemical change, after which it would support only
one of the words on its surface. All the others sank through a screen and
vanished.
The winning words floated easily face up and somehow set in motion the paying
mechanism or the collecting mechanism. The bettors either saw their bets vanish
with a click or else their winnings would slide automatically to the square before
which they stood. Cayle heard the click of defeat.
He doubled his bet and this time won. He withdrew his original stake, and played
with the coin he had won. The intricate lights fused, the pump squished, then up
floated the word even. The pleasant sound of money sliding softly toward him
assailed Cayle's ears. It was a sound that he was to hear often during the next
hour and a half for, despite the fact that he played cautiously and only with
pennies, he won just over five credits.
Tired at last he retreated to a connecting restaurant. When he came back into the
"treasure room," as it was called, he noticed a game that was played in an even
more intimate fashion by the player himself.
The money went into a slot, releasing a lever, and when this was pulled a light
sequence was set up. The movement was very rapid but it resolved swiftly into
red or black.
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