And I had been trying to make a man of him and reform him. I'd
even thought, if he stopped drinking, he might make a success as a
private detective--at Port Sandor, on Fenris! I wondered what color
my face had gotten now, and I started looking around for a crack in
the floor, to trickle gently and unobtrusively into.
And it should have been obvious to me, maybe not that he was an
Executive Special, but that he was certainly no drunken barfly. The
way he'd gone four hours without a drink, and seemed to be just as
drunk as ever. That was right--just as drunk as he'd ever been; which
was to say, cold sober. There was the time I'd seen him catch that
falling bottle and set it up. No drunken man could have done that; a
man's reflexes are the first thing to be affected by alcohol. And the
way he shot that tread-snail. I've seen men who could shoot well on
liquor, but not quick-draw stuff. That calls for perfect
co-ordination. And the way he went into his tipsy act at the
_Times_--veteran actor slipping into a well-learned role.
He drank, sure. He did a lot of drinking. But there are men whose
systems resist the effects of alcohol better than others, and he must
have been an exceptional example of the type, or he'd never have
adopted the sort of cover personality he did. It would have been
fairly easy for him. Space his drinks widely, and never take a drink
unless he _had_ to, to maintain the act.
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