nd
alarmed. "There was this crew of the _Endore_ in quarantine when I came
to work this morning. They were unusual in that they didn't complain
about having to wait, indicating a guilt feeling in the crew. Dr.
Hargrave asked to see a common spaceman first. That proved he recognized
this. The name of the spaceman he saw is Ren Gravenard, who was brought
in at a little after nine and was still in there when I left at twelve."

She looked keenly at Dr. Bemis. Something was so radically wrong
somewhere that she didn't have the courage to even ask him. She just
waited.

"Dr. Hargrave has been taken to observation," he said without warning.
"So has the crew of the _Endore_. I--ah--believe you may take an
indefinite leave from the office until further notice. With full pay, of
course."

"Dr. Hargrave?" Martha asked, not hearing the last.

"Yes!" Dr. Bemis's voice changed from harsh tenseness to contriteness.
"I'm sorry, Miss Ryan, but I feel it inadvisable to discuss it just now.
All I can say is that full quarantine measures are now in force as of
fifteen minutes ago. There will be no landing or taking off from Earth
until it is lifted; and within this area the same quarantine
applies."[1]

Martha Ryan hesitated, then turned and left. Dr. Bemis watched her go.
After the door closed behind her he did a very peculiar thing. He took a
gun out of his coat pocket and shot himself through the head. After that
he went to a mirror on the wall, dressed the wounds carefully, wincing
at the bite of the alcohol in the raw flesh, and, after drinking several
glasses of water, returned to Dr. Hargrave's desk.

* * * * *

He sat there, drumming his fingers on the walnut surface, his eyes
closed as if he were listening to something very far away. A buzzer
under his desk gave three short buzzes. He reached over and deflected
the toggle on the intercom.

"Back already, Martha?" he said cheerily. "Any more left on your list
for the _Endore_?"

Martha checked her list. There had been two left when she went to lunch.
They had been checked off, too, while she was gone.

"That's all, Dr. Nale," she said.

"Good," came his voice through the intercom. "Think I'll go out and have
something to eat myself."

The click of the intercom was followed at once by the opening of the
inner office door. Martha's eyes watched Dr. Nale Hargrave as he walked
through the office and out into the corridor.

Her eyes rema