d cigar clamped in his mouth like a
rank growth. Phillip's stomach began rolling; he sank his face into his
hand, trying unobtrusively to clamp his nostrils. With a groan of
deliverance he lurched off the bus at the laboratory gate.

He met Jake Miles coming up the steps. Jake looked pale, too pale.

"Morning," Phillip said weakly. "Nice day. Looks like the sun might come
through."

"Yeah," said Jake. "Nice day. You--uh--feel all right this morning?"

"Fine, fine." Phillip tossed his hat in the closet, opened the incubator
on his culture tubes, trying to look busy. He slammed the door after one
whiff and gripped the edge of the work table with whitening knuckles.
"Why?"

"Oh, nothing. Thought you looked a little peaked, was all."

They stared at each other in silence. Then, as though by signal, their
eyes turned to the office at the end of the lab.

"Coffin come in yet?"

Jake nodded. "He's in there. He's got the door locked."

"I think he's going to have to open it," said Phillip.

A gray-faced Dr. Coffin unlocked the door, backed quickly toward the
wall. The room reeked of kitchen deodorant. "Stay right where you are,"
Coffin squeaked. "Don't come a step closer. I can't see you now.
I'm--I'm busy, I've got work that has to be done--"

"You're telling _me_," growled Phillip. He motioned Jake into the office
and locked the door carefully. Then he turned to Coffin. "When did it
start for you?"

Coffin was trembling. "Right after supper last night. I thought I was
going to suffocate. Got up and walked the streets all night. My God,
what a stench!"

"Jake?"

Dr. Miles shook his head. "Sometime this morning, I don't know when. I
woke up with it."

"That's when it hit me," said Phillip.

"But I don't understand," Coffin howled. "Nobody else seems to notice
anything--"

"Yet," said Phillip, "we were the first three to take the Coffin Cure,
remember? You, and me and Jake. Two months ago."

Coffin's forehead was beaded with sweat. He stared at the two men in
growing horror. "_But what about the others?_" he whispered.

"I think," said Phillip, "that we'd better find something spectacular to
do in a mighty big hurry. That's what I think."

* * * * *

Jake Miles said, "The most important thing right now is secrecy. We
mustn't let a word get out, not until we're absolutely certain."

"But what's _happened_?" Coffin cried. "These foul smells, everywhere.
You, Phillip, you