t him with that delicate-looking,
deadly little needle-gun of hers. I'll bet he had a hundred of those
tiny slivers of steel in him. One would have been enough, but she must
have set the gun on full automatic and then let it spew itself empty."

I made sympathetic noises.

"She said afterward that Johnny had been a possible disease carrier
and, besides, he was dirty. There was absolutely no doubt about
it--Johnny _was_ dirty and in more ways than one, but as for diseases,
Xenon seemed to have none that the human race hadn't already overcome
on some other planet far more dangerous than this one."

* * * * *

I laid more wood on the fire as Lee paused to sip and roll the brandy.

He said, "I've always suspected, however, that the real reason for
Johnny's assassination struck Prunella, so to speak, like a bolt from
the blue when she walked under his nest in the tower. At any rate, I
saw her shoving her shirt into the disposer chute. Johnny had one bad
habit and all of us knew better than to get within his range, but
Prunella, being new with us, just didn't understand that bird."

He stopped, twirling his empty glass suggestively, with painful
memories obviously clouding his eyes while he stared into the
hypnotically flickering fire.

"Empty," he said mournfully, "just as my heart was." He bowed his head
to Johnny's memory as I hastily left him alone with his grief. I
quickly returned from the kitchen, bringing a fresh supply of the
medicinal spirits that Grandfather had advised for moments of stress
and, over Lee's feeble protests, forced a generous dosage into his
glass. He regarded it with a wan, pathetic smile, then, at my urging,
choked back his sorrow and nearly drained the goblet in a manful gulp.
Grandfather was right. The sorrow left Lee's eye and from somewhere he
found new courage to go on.

"The death of the bird seemed to crystalize the rebellion. That night,
the entire personnel of the station unanimously elected themselves as
joint chairmen of the Ways and Means Committee of the Xenon
Anti-Prunella and After-sundown Elbow-bending League and immediately
called a special meeting. The emergency session convened around a keg
of my illegal brandy which, in some miraculous manner, had escaped
Prunella's searching hatchet. Not wishing to offend the unknown gods
who had thus smiled upon us, we took small token sips as we
meditated."

Lee demonstrated with the glass in his han