at life would be like
on this so-alien planet!"

"You didn't need to wonder, Tiny," Hilton assured him. "It was in the
bag. He's incapable of abandonment."

Beverly Bell, the van der Moen twins and Temple Bells all stared at
Hilton in awe; and Sandra felt much the same way.

"But suppose he _had_ called you?" Sandra demanded.

"Speculating on the impossible is unprofitable," he said.

"Oh, you're the most _exasperating_ thing!" Sandra stamped a foot.
"Don't you--_ever_--answer a question intelligibly?"

"When the question is meaningless, chick, I can't."

At the lock Temple Bells, who had been hanging back, cocked an eyebrow
at Hilton and he made his way to her side.

"What was it you started to say back there, boss?"

"Oh, yes. That we should see each other oftener."

"That's what I was hoping you were going to say." She put her hand under
his elbow and pressed his arm lightly, fleetingly, against her side.
"That would be indubitably the fondest thing I could be of."

He laughed and gave her arm a friendly squeeze. Then he studied her
again, the most baffling member of his staff. About five feet six.
Lithe, hard, trained down fine--as a tennis champion, she would be.
Stacked--_how_ she was stacked! Not as beautiful as Sandra or Teddy ...
but with an ungodly lot of something that neither of them had ... nor
any other woman he had ever known.

"Yes, I am a little difficult to classify," she said quietly, almost
reading his mind.

"That's the understatement of the year! But I'm making some progress."

"Such as?" This was an open challenge.

"Except possibly Teddy, the best brain aboard."

"That isn't true, but go ahead."

"You're a powerhouse. A tightly organized, thoroughly integrated,
smoothly functioning, beautifully camouflaged Juggernaut. A reasonable
facsimile of an irresistible force."

"My God, Jarvis!" That had gone deep.

"Let me finish my analysis. You aren't head of your department because
you don't want to be. You fooled the top psychs of the Board. You've
been running ninety per cent submerged because you can work better that
way and there's no glory-hound blood in you."

She stared at him, licking her lips. "I knew your mind was a razor, but
I didn't know it was a diamond drill, too. That seals your doom, boss,
unless ... no, you can't _possibly_ know why I'm here."

"Why, of course I do."

"You just think you do. You see, I've been in love with you ever since,
as a gangling, bon