 Why does Jig bluff to Beamish initially?
The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! Nobody insults Buckhalter Shannon's Imperial Circus to Buckhalter Shannon's face unless he's tired and wants a long rest in a comfy fracture-frame. Bucky Shannon sighed, and let his fist start traveling, a long, deceptive arc. Mistaken identity." It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. Beamish sipped his drink, made a polite face, and put it down. It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." He went on, quietly, "I have always held that entertainment, of the right sort, is the most valuable aid humanity can have in its search for the alleviation of toil and boredom...." "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. Gow looks a lot like the scenery—scowling, unapproachable, and tough. His hands, holding the curtains apart, had thick black hair on them and were not much larger than the hams of a Venusian swamp-rhino. Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" "She's the star attraction of our show, Mr. Beamish. The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." I said tactfully, "We'd have to have at least a hundred U.C.'s." One hundred Universal Credits will be agreeable to me." He dragged out a roll as big as my two fists, peeled off half a dozen credit slips, and laid them on the table. When he got his breath back he said suddenly, "Beamish is pulling some kind of a game."
 He knows he can get away with it - Beamish has the money to match what they ask.
 He knows he can get away with it - Beamish has the money to match what they ask.  He doesn't trust Shannon to close a good deal.  He doesn't trust Beamish, and wants to see if he's committed to the idea.  For them to start a new tour would be costly for them, and Jig wants to get the maximum price.