k confidently. "I gather you and your companion are
some sort of prisoners."

"Slaves," corrected Happy with unaccustomed bitterness. "The Jellies are
slaves, to work in the vats. I don't know if the Toughs are slaves, too,
but the Masters let them sleep in barracks on the surface. Shadow's not
either a Jelly or a Tough, and I don't know if he's a slave. Shadow's
just Shadow."

"Before you go on," interrupted Dark, "I seem to be extraordinarily
hungry."

Happy twittered and quivered. He moved hurriedly around a corner to one
of the storage vats, and returned in a moment with a supply of the
tasteless gelatin that was their food here. Dark fell to greedily, and
Happy, his tongue loosed by this new companionship, started feeding him
information in a steady stream.

"I don't know how they get us here," said Happy. "We aren't born here,
but something happens to our memories. We can't stay up in the dry air
very long, or our skin cracks and our flesh collapses. You see, our
tissues are mostly water.

"Everybody down here's like me. Everybody but the Toughs. You'll see
them. I don't know how they got here, either, or what use they are. They
don't work like we do.

"And Shadow. He's different. Shadow likes me. He stays with me all the
time. And then there's Old Beard. He hides down here, and I don't think
the Masters know he's here. He's very old and very wise."

"Who are the Masters?" asked Dark curiously, between mouthfuls. "And
what sort of work do you do for them?"

"They're the people who run the hydroponic farm. They're normal men,
like you--I mean, like you would be if you weren't swollen up and pale
like the bodies that are thrown in the vats.

"Old Beard knows; he's very wise. He calls the Masters 'Marscorp.' I
don't know why, but it seems that before I lost my memory I knew a
language where _corp_ meant _body_. Like _corpse_, you know. Maybe it
has something to do with the bodies they put in the vats.

"Old Beard says that the Masters are developing Martian foods that we
can eat without dying, and he must be right, because sometimes they
bring down some hard foods and make some of us eat them instead of
gelatin. But those who eat the hard foods always die, so I don't suppose
they've succeeded yet, except some of the Toughs. Some of the Toughs
have eaten the hard food without dying, sometimes, but they got pretty
sick. And then--"

"Hold on! Wait a minute!" exclaimed Dark, holding up a restraining hand.