est things I ever heard
of."

"They're two of the world's best--absolutely." Nadia looked at him,
surprised, for he had not seen anything complimentary to himself in her
remark. "Wait until you meet them. They're men, Nadia--real men. And
speaking of meeting them--please try to keep on loving me after you meet
Norm Brandon, will you?"

"Don't be a simp!" her brown eyes met his steadily. "You didn't mean
that--you didn't even say it, did you?"

"Back it comes, sweetheart! But knowing myself and knowing those
two...."

"Stop it! If Norman Brandon or Quincy Westfall had been here instead
of you, or both of them together, we'd have been here from now on--we
wouldn't even have gotten away from the Jovians!"

* * * * *

"Now it's your turn to back water, guy!"

"Well, maybe, a little--if both of them were here, they ought to equal
you in some things. Brandon says himself that he and Westfall together
make one scientist--Dad says he says so."

"You don't want to believe everything you hear. Neither of them will
admit that he knows anything or can do anything--that's the way they
are."

"Dad has told me a lot about them--how they've always been together
ever since their undergraduate days. How they studied together all over
the world, even after they'd been given all the degrees loose. How
they even went to the other planets to study--to Mars, where they had
to live in space-suits all the time, and to Venus, where they had to
take ultra-violet treatments every day to keep alive. How they learned
everything that everybody else knew and then went out into space to find
out things that nobody else ever dreamed of. How you came to join them,
and what you three have done since. They're fine, of course--but they
aren't _you_," she concluded passionately.

"No, thank Heaven! I know you love me, Nadia, just as I love you--you
know I never doubted it. But you'll like them, really. They're a
wonderful team. Brandon's a big brute, you know--fully five centimeters
taller than I am, and he weighs close to a hundred kilograms--and no
lard, either. He's wild, impetuous, always jumping at conclusions and
working out theories that seem absolutely ridiculous, but they're
usually sound, even though impractical. Westfall's the practical
member--he makes Norm pipe down, pins him down to facts, and makes it
possible to put his hunches and wild flashes of genius into workable
form. Quince is a...."

"Now