Venus Mines, Incorporated

'Venus Mines, Incorporated' is a science-fiction novel by Nathan Schachner & Arthur Leo Zagat. When radioactive deposits are discovered on Venus, space war is imminent, but a veteran of the outer air lanes is courageous enough to pit himself against alien forces. We are introduced to this veteran trader at the beginning of the novel, where there was a brooding light in his steel-gray eyes and a tense grimness about his fine bronzed features. He stared unseeingly at the great pile of clotted spider web that filled half the trading room of the little post. A cool half million that accumulated result of half an earth year's dickering with the natives was worth. And all it had cost Venus Mines. Inc. were some bushels of brightly colored beads and glittering gewgaws dear to the savage heart.