d get out of this building and across the street to her rooming
house, she would be safe for a little while. She could telephone Nuwell
from there.

Grabbing her purse, she hastened out of the office.

6

The three men who stood by a table in the back lobby of the Childress
Barber College and checked off the departure of the men at regularly
spaced intervals were as different in appearance as they were in their
positions in the Order of the Phoenix.

Oxvane Childress, big and bearded, was the "front," and directed the
very necessary task of administering the Childress Barber College as a
genuine barber college. Childress was a prominent member of two of Mars
City's civic and social clubs, and careful examination of his activities
over a period of years would have thrown no suspicion on him.

The Chief, whose real name perhaps Childress knew but never spoke, was a
huge-headed midget who directed the far-flung activities of the Order of
the Phoenix as an underground rebel organization. He never left the
building, but reports were brought in to him from all over Mars. He knew
a great deal at any time about what the government and Marscorp were
doing, and he gave the orders for those moves aimed at maintaining the
secrecy of the Phoenix.

Dark Kensington, tall and pale-eyed, had moved at once into the natural
position of guiding the experimental work of the organization in
extrasensory perception and telekinesis. He was able to add his
knowledge of earlier work to the progress that had been made since his
disappearance, and co-ordinated the studies in the various dome cities.

A little behind the three stood Fancher Laddigan, doing the actual
checking with a pencil on a list in his hand.

"I think it's all unnecessary," rumbled Childress unhappily. "I watched
the girl carefully while she was here, and the usual checks were made
into her background. It's true she had some social contacts with Nuwell
Eli when she first came to Mars, but there's nothing sinister about that
association and it seems the last thing a Marscorp agent would do
openly. As far as I could determine, she just realized she'd violated a
rule and would be discharged for it, so she left before she could be
discharged."

"She hasn't returned to her rooming house," remarked the Chief in his
high, thin voice.

"Looking for another job, or maybe just on a trip," said Childress.
"After all, she's a terrestrial tourist. If this is all a false