.

Minutes later they turned in from the corridor, went through another,
shorter passageway and then came to a door marked: Resident Surgeon.
They knocked and a deep voice boomed: "Come in!"

It was a medium-sized room, clearly a dispensary. There was an operating
table, a sterilizer, tall glass-fronted instrument cabinets and a
refrigerator. At the far end of the room a hulking, bear-like man sat
behind a magnalloy desk. The nameplate on the desk said: Hal H. Wilcox,
M.D.

"Howdy, gents," said Dr. Hal H. Wilcox, shattering the moon-silence with
a vengeance. "What can I do for you?" he was all smiles.

That smile, decided Pell, didn't quite match the shrewdness of his eyes.
Have to watch this boy, maybe. There was a big quartz window behind the
man so that for the moment Pell saw him almost in silhouette. "We're
from _Current_ magazine," said Pell. "I'm Dick Pell and this is Steve
Kronski. You got our radio, I guess."

"Oh, yes. Yes, indeed." Wilcox creaked way back in his chair. "You're
the fellas want to do a story on us moon surgeons."

"That's right." Pell fumbled a little self-consciously with the gravity
weights clipped to his trousers. Took a while for moon visitors to get
used to them, everybody said.

"Well, I don't know exactly as how there's much of a story in what we
do. We're just a bunch of sawbones stationed here, that's all."

"We're interested in the diseases peculiar to the moon," said Pell. "For
instance, why do the permanent residents up here have to have an
inoculation every year?"

"That's for the Venusian rash. Thought everybody knew that."

"Venusian rash?"

"Nearest thing we ever had to it on Earth was Rocky Mountain Spotted
Fever. It's a rickettsia disease. Makes a fella pretty sick; sometimes
kills him in two, three days. It started when they had those Venusian
construction workers and tunnel men here, oh, long before the war. Under
certain conditions the rickettsia stays dormant and then pops up again."

"And the inoculation's for that?"

"Standard. Once a year. You got the inoculation yourself, no doubt,
before you jumped off for the moon."

"Where does the serum or whatever you call it come from?"

Pell thought he saw Wilcox's eyes flicker. The doctor said, "It's stored
at the main landings. We draw it as we need it from there."

"Have any here now?"

Wilcox's eyes did move this time. He looked at the refrigerator--but
only for the veriest moment. "Don't really reckon s