The Five Gold Bands by Jack Vance

too sexless for his tastes.
    “May I see them?” she asked politely.
    And why not, thought Paddy. He unsnapped the band.
    She stared. “You’re carrying them around your wrist?”
    “Where else?” demanded Paddy with asperity. “I never intended to be kidnaped and transported by a black imp of a female.”
    She took the bits of parchment and the key. The first was written in the Pherasic script, which Paddy had been unable to read.
    She scrutinized it and he saw her lips moving. “Och, then you can read that heathen scribble?”
    “Certainly I can read it. It says: ‘28.3063 degrees north, 190.9995 degrees west. Under the Sacred Sign.’ ” She laughed. “It’s like a treasure hunt. But why should they write directions down like this?”
    Paddy shrugged. “For each other, I gather. In case one of them got killed, then the others would know where the records were hid.”
    Fay said thoughtfully, “We’re not far from Alpheratz.”
    Paddy stared aghast. “They’d draw and quarter me! They’d wear out their nerve-suits! They’d—”
    She said coolly,” We could be tourists from Earth, making the Langtry Line. Alpheratz A, back into Pegasus for Scheat, down Andromeda—Ddhil, Almach, Mirach. There’s thousands of others doing the same thing. A honeymoon couple, that’s what we’d be. It’s the last place they’d be looking for you. You’d never be safer.”
    “Not much,” said Paddy energetically. “I want to get back to Earth with my life and there I’ll sell these bits to whomever wants to buy.”
    She looked at him disgustedly. “Paddy Blackthorn— I’m running this ship. We settled that once.”
    “Och,” cried Paddy, “it’s no source of wonder that you’ve never married. God pity the man who gets such a witch. No man would have you with your insistent ways.”
    Fay smiled wryly. “No? Are you so sure, Paddy Blackthorn?”
    Paddy said, “Well, it’s sure that I, for one, would never have the taste for the black-headed pint of spite that you are. I’d be drinking whiskey to ease my soul by night and by day.”
    She sneered. “We’re both of us suited then. And now— Alpheratz A.
    From Alpheratz A to Alpheratz B the stream of boats was like a caravan of ants—bringing pods, fibers, sheets, crystallized wood, fruit, meal, pollen, oil, plant-pearls, a thousand other products of B’s miraculous vegetation to the windy gray world A, returning with agricultural equipment and supplies for the jungle workers.
    Into this swarm of space-craft Paddy and Fay merged their boat unnoticed.
    They dropped toward the bright side of the planet. Fay asked Paddy, “Ever been here before?”
    “No, my travels never brought me this far north. And from the looks of the planet, I’d as lief be back on Akhabats. If it’s as dry there at least it’s a planet with blue water.” Paddy gestured at the telescopic projection on the screen. “Now just what might that ocean consist of? Maybe it’s mud?”
    Fay said, “It’s not water. It’s something like a gas. It has all the properties of a gas except that it won’t mix with air. It’s heavier and settles out in the low places like water or fog —and the air rests on top.”
    “Indeed, now—and is it poison?”
    She turned him a side-glance. “If you fall in you smother, because there’s no oxygen.”
    “Then that will be a fine place to leave our boat. And chance being good, we might find it another time.”
    “We’d better stick to our first plan. “We’ll be less conspicuous.”
    “And suppose they recognize Paddy Blackthorn and his black-headed mistress—ah, now, don’t take me wrong. That’s just what they’d be calling you and no thanks to them either way. But now, supposing they do that and set out after us, then wouldn’t it be a fine thing to jump into the ocean and soar off under their long skinny noses?”
    She said with a sigh, “We’ll compromise. We’ll hide it so that it’s accessible. But we’ll go back to it