Grifters' Asteroid

Two swindlers land on a dusty asteroid convinced they're the smartest operators in the galaxy. Harvey and Joe have cleaned out a thousand marks across the space lanes, and Planet 42 looks like easy pickings. But Angus Johnson isn't your typical mark. He charges them five buckos for a glass of water, and delivers it without blinking. H.L. Gold's 1940s novella is a compact, wry jab at the absurdity of commerce: what happens when professional con artists meet someone who actually gives you what you pay for? It's slight but sharp, a period piece that shows early sci-fi writers playing with the clash between terrestrial greed and the infinite frontier.