is head and gripped his hair firmly.
Instinctively he started to swing at it, but Dr. Bond's voice stopped
him in time.

"Easy, Rick! He won't hurt you."

Rick reached up carefully and his hands met fur. He lifted the little
creature down and stared at it, his lips slowly parting in a grin. It
was a tiny monkey no larger than a squirrel, with soft brown fur and
tufted ears. The little animal pulled free, jumped onto Rick's shoulder
and kissed him ecstatically, making happy chirrupy noises.

"What on earth is a monkey doing here?"

Dr. Bond smiled. "Prince Machiavelli is more than a monkey," he replied.
"Actually, he is a true marmoset of the genus _Callithrix_. He is also a
genuine spacemonk."

"A what?"

The elderly scientist smiled. "Spacemonk. The simian equivalent of
spaceman. The Prince has been into space twice now. Fortunately, the
nose section was parachuted down intact both times, so he survived.
Other spacemonks have been less fortunate. He will be our surrogate for
Project Pegasus."

Rick stared at the little creature with increased interest. The marmoset
was to substitute, then, for human occupants of the big rocket. His life
would depend on their ability to get the winged nose section down in one
piece. He stroked the tiny spacemonk gently, and got a contented series
of chirps in response.

Dick Earle walked in and smiled as the monkey snuggled down happily in
Rick's cupped hands. "Looks as if you've made a friend, Rick. Good. In
addition to your other duties you can take over as the monk's keeper. He
won't be any trouble. Sometimes I think he has better manners than some
of the staff." Earle turned and walked out again.

Rick stared after him. "What was that last crack about?"

Dr. Bond smiled. "Dick has his problems. I won't gossip, but you'll soon
see what I mean."

The elderly consultant's prediction came true in short order. The next
day, Rick ran headlong into an unwarranted and particularly nasty
dressing down at the hands of Frank Miller. Rick, annoyed with himself
for having done a rather poor job of connecting up the servomotor, was
busily ripping it out when Miller came over to see what he was doing.
Without waiting for an explanation, the design engineer launched into a
tirade. Rick's face slowly reddened and his temper grew frayed. It was
so completely unjust that he was on the verge of swinging at the
engineer when Dick Earle walked in.

Earle asked crisply, "What's this all ab