orming so perfect an oval. Then
there was her fair hair escaping from beneath the soft edges of her fur
cap. She was prettier even than he had first thought.

"I allow it maybe sounds that way," he said. Then he shook his head.
"But there's nothing unreal to it. No. There's no more unreal to Adresol
than there is to the hell fires raging away out there in the heart of
Unaga, where the whole place is white like a lake of pure milk with the
bloom of the plant that breathes certain death, but which holds in its
heart the greatest benefit the world's ever known. It's all queer, I
allow. But--say--" He turned and pointed at the store-house. "It's all
there. It's baled ready for Lorson Harris to buy. You can get a peek at
it, at the stuff these folks reckoned to steal. Will you----?"

The invitation stirred Marcel to prompt anxiety. He laid a hand on
Keeko's soft shoulder as she prepared to move away.

"Is it safe, Uncle Steve?" he demanded hastily. "You see, Keeko's not
like----"

"Safe? Sure." Steve produced two masks. "I've worked in there for weeks,
boy, with these things set on my face. I've worked all day and haf the
night--baling. Sure it's safe. You go, too. There's a mask for each, and
I guess they aren't just things of beauty. We'll go along over, and I'll
fix 'em for you. I kind of fancy Keeko should see what's hid up in that
store-house."

Steve led the way, and, hand in hand, like two children, the others
followed him. At the door of the store-house he paused and turned. He
stepped up to Marcel and adjusted his mask. And while he adjusted it his
eyes remained unsmiling. He was careful, infinitely careful, in the
adjustment, and in reply to the youth's protest at the nauseating taste
of the drug he was forced to inhale his retort was briefly to the point.

"Sure it's no bouquet," he said. "But it's that or a--halo, and wings
and things."

Keeko offered no protest at all. She was impressed far more than she
knew. It seemed to her that the simple trust which prompted the man's
action in revealing his secret to her, the secret Lorson Harris was
willing to pay a hundred thousand dollars for, was something too simply
wonderful for words.

With the adjustment of the masks Steve removed the fastenings that
barred the door. He held it closed a moment and turned to Marcel.

"You'll go first, boy. You'll go right in. I guess you've got the masks
so I can't come with you. I want you to take Keeko, and show it all.