 Why was Billy-boy stopped as he was walking into the main lounge?
] I was killing an hour in the billiard room of the Spacemen's Club in Swamp City when the Venusian bellboy came and tapped me on the shoulder. "Beg pardon, thir," he said with his racial lisp, "thereth thome one to thee you in the main lounge." The Spacemen's was a sanctuary, a rest club where in-coming pilots and crewmen could relax before leaving for another voyage. The rule that no females could pass its portals was strictly enforced. There she stood before a frantically gesticulating desk clerk, leaning on her faded green umbrella. "Hi, Billy-boy," she greeted calmly. If Annabella C. Flowers wrote a novel, and the locale was the desert of Mars, she packed her carpet bag and hopped a liner for Craterville. Before I realized it, I was following her through the lounge and out to the jetty front. But the place was packed with miners, freight-crew-men—all the tide and wash of humanity that made Swamp City the frontier post it is. It read: ONE NIGHT ONLY DOCTOR UNIVERSE AND HIS NINE GENIUSES THE QUESTION PROGRAM OF THE SYSTEM As we strode down the aisle a mangy-looking Venusian began to pound a tinpan piano in the pit. She minced lightly down the aisle, climbed the stage steps and disappeared in the wings. On the right were nine visi sets, each with its new improved pantascope panel and switchboard. Before each set stood an Earthman operator.
 He was informed that he had a visitor
 He was not welcome in the club, per recent events.  He was no longer a pilot and had to return to the gate.  The pilots and crew-men were requested to all meet before entering  He was informed that he had a visitor