ed how Shadow happened to be, and why he was
here in the caverns, but it was not the sort of thing to bother his mind
for very long.

Happy moved along the walkways, peering into the vats which appeared to
be empty. He assumed Shadow was following him; Shadow always did.

Around corners, he came upon blubbery creatures like himself, tending
the plants. They nodded greeting at him, and Happy nodded back.

His search was discouraging. All the vats not filled with plants seemed
to have corpses in them, in varying stages of decomposition.

Around one corner, Happy came upon a Tough, lounging in the walkway. The
Tough was a compact, muscular youth, with bullet head, sullen eyes and
hard mouth. He looked as though he lounged with hands in pockets, but,
like Happy and all the others, he was naked, so that was just an
impression.

Happy stopped. He and his soft kind avoided the Toughs when they could.
The Tough looked at him with disinterested eyes, then looked away.

Happy was uncertain what to do or say. His impulse was to turn and go
back, but he did not quite dare.

"Are you a rebel, Tough?" he burbled the first thing in his mind, for
lack of something else to say.

The Tough looked at him contemptuously. Then, suddenly, the Tough's hard
eyes flared with savage excitement and he moved swiftly on Happy. As he
began to turn in panic, Happy saw from the corner of his eye another
Tough racing around the corner of the walkway to come upon him from
behind.

The Tough in front of him reached him and began pummeling him viciously
with his fists, the hard fists sinking like painful hammers deep into
Happy's flesh with every blow. Happy bleated in fright and distress,
trying ineffectually to ward off his attacker.

Then, out of nowhere, Shadow flashed in like a lightning bolt on the
other Tough as he had almost reached Happy. There was a brief, squalling
tangle and the Tough pitched headlong into a plant-choked vat.

Shadow vanished and reappeared, intermittently, like a flashing light.
The first Tough, seeing what had happened to his cohort, ceased
pummeling Happy abruptly and took to his heels. He vanished around a
corner.

The vanquished Tough climbed out of the vat, sputtering and cursing, and
fled in the other direction.

"Oh, my! Oh, my!" exclaimed Happy to the now-invisible Shadow. "What
wicked creatures!"

Sore and shaken, he moved on down the walkway, his search now
intensified by the need for wetness to so