.
Trent glanced through the door at the tall fenced-in yard with the large
kennel that might well have served as a small garage. He stood beside
the girl watching the big animal romp for a few moments, then she shut
the door and they turned back down the hall.

"I'll have to go inside now, Fred," she said. "If you want to wait for
Gaddon, have a seat. It shouldn't be long."

She started to turn in at a door marked private, when Fred pulled her
gently around and before she could stop him, had kissed her.

"I was getting mighty jealous of Brutus. Now I feel better."

"I don't know which of you I prefer," she shot back, then smiled and
pulled away from him.

He watched her open the office door and close it after her.

* * * * *

He had lit his second cigarette and gotten halfway through his third
magazine on the rack beside the chair when the office door opened again.
He heard the pleasant voice of Dr. Stanley Fenwick.

"If every man had a heart as strong as yours, Blair, we wouldn't need
half the doctors we have."

Then he heard the deep, gruff voice of Dr. Blair Gaddon half laugh.

"Thanks a lot, Fenwick. You've taken a load off my mind. Goodbye, Miss
Drake."

He heard Joan reply and then saw Dr. Fenwick usher the physicist out
into the hall.

Trent rose as the two men approached.

"Why, hello, Trent," Dr. Fenwick said.

Trent nodded at the tall, white-coated figure of the famous gland
specialist.

"Afternoon, doctor."

Fenwick smiled at him. "Don't tell me you're waiting to see me?"

Fred shook his head. "Not exactly. I was waiting to see Dr. Gaddon
though. I was on my way out to the Proving Grounds and I happened to
stop by and talk to Miss Drake." He turned to the physicist, a bulky man
with firm, hard features, who moved his large body with an almost
cat-like grace.

"I hope you don't mind, Dr. Gaddon. Possibly I can give you a lift back
out to the Base. I'm covering the launching for my paper."

Gaddon smiled at him. "But of course I don't mind. And I'll take you up
on that offer. It'll save me a trip back to town to take one of the
staff cars."

* * * * *

The words had a friendly note to them, as did the smile on Gaddon's
face. And yet, somehow, Fred Trent found that he did not like this man.
It was nothing he could put his finger on, nothing he could rationalize,
unless it was the coldly calculating look in the scientist's e