pped a sage-rabbit once when we'd run
out of supplies out in Hadriacum."

Fancher chuckled.

"Then we couldn't eat the thing," he reminisced.

"Very well, if you're sure of his identity, that's all I wish to know,"
said the Chief. "I don't want to be trapped by a Marscorp trick with
plastic surgery. But if this man is Dark Kensington, it's the best
fortune the Phoenix has met with in a long time."

He fell silent, and busied himself with papers on his desk, paying no
more attention to Fancher. Fancher waited, then concluded reasonably
that the interview was at an end. And, since the long cigar agonized
him, he rose and moved quietly toward the door.

"I have not given you permission to leave," said the Chief, without
raising either his eyes or his voice. "Kensington is due to arrive in a
few moments, and I want you here when I talk to him. If any of his words
or actions appear inconsistent in any way to you, I want you to let me
know."

Fancher sighed silently, returned to his chair and puffed disconsolately
on the cigar.

Some five minutes passed. Then there was a firm rap on the door.

"Come in!" called the Chief in his reedy voice.

The door opened, and in walked a man whose entire presence radiated
strength, confidence and the potentiality of instant violence. Dark
Kensington was tall and broad-shouldered, clad in dark-blue tunic and
baggy trousers. His face was darkly tanned, strong, handsome. His hair
was black as midnight. His eyes were startlingly pale in the dark face;
eyes of pale blue, remote and filled with light.

"I'm Dark Kensington," he said, striding up to the Chief's desk. "You're
the man known as the Chief?"

"Yes," answered the Chief, and waited.

Dark nodded to Fancher. Fancher, feeling rather green about the gills,
returned the greeting.

Dark turned his attention back to the Chief, and he, also, waited. There
was a long silence. The Chief broke it first.

"What do you know about Dr. G. O. T. Hennessey--Goat Hennessey?" asked
the Chief calmly.

Fancher blinked at this unexpected line of questioning. A cloud passed
over Dark's face, as though the name had triggered something in him
that he could not quite remember.

"He was a very good friend of mine," answered Dark, "although it seems
that something happened between us that I can't quite recollect. He was
one of the most brilliant geneticists of Earth, and came to Mars with an
experimental group that was to try to develop a hum