When you want to read something by any Bertram Chandler, this'll do. Other books might have something by THE Bertram Chandler.

Typical Space City in the back. Everything in the same Space Style. Presumably the four quadrupeds are the occupants. Synop:

The Iralians were humanoid and technically free citizens of the Glactic Empire. But as slaves they were prized above all others, for they had the unique capacity to transmit acquired knowledge by heredity. And so when the space mercenary Wanderer was hired by GLASS (Galactic League for the Abolition and Suppression of Slavery) to take a cargo of Iralians home it was not going to be a simple task.

That's Kelly Freas' work, by the way. You can tell by his trademark wet roundness, for lack of a better word.

First Book Publication! In other words, old magazine stories.