, I'd have to
quit the Patrol and you wouldn't. And secondly, if you must know the
truth, I've never been asked."

Ben looked thoughtfully at the copper-haired Irish-Indian girl. All of
a sudden she seemed to have changed in his eyes. He shook his head and
turned back to the road monitors.

"I just don't think that a patrol trooper has any business getting
married and trying to keep a marriage happy and make a home for a
family thirty days out of every three hundred sixty, with an
occasional weekend home if you're lucky enough to draw your hometown
for a terminal point. This might help the population rate but it
sure doesn't do anything for the institution of matrimony."

[Illustration]

"I know some troopers that are married," Kelly said.

"But there aren't very many," Ben countered. "Comes the time they pull
me off the cars and stick me behind a desk somewhere, then I'll think
about it."

"You might be too old by then," Kelly murmured.

Ben grinned. "You sound as though you're worried about it," he said.

"No," Kelly replied softly, "no, I'm not worried about it. Just
thinking." She averted her eyes and looked out into the night again.
"I wonder what NorCon would do with a husband-wife team?" she
murmured, almost to herself.

Ben looked sharply at her and frowned. "Why, they'd probably split
them up," he said.

* * * * *

"Split what up?" Clay inquired, standing in the door of the cab.

"Split up all troopers named Clay Ferguson," Kelly said disgustedly,
"and use them for firewood--especially the heads. They say that
hardwood burns long and leaves a fine ash. And that's what you've been
for years."

She sat erect in the jump seat and looked sourly at the young trooper.

Clay shuddered at the pun and squeezed by the girl to get to his seat.
"I'll take it now, pop," he said. "Go get your geriatrics treatment."

Ben got out of his seat with a snort. "I'll 'pop' you, skinhead," he
snapped. "You may be eight years younger than I am but you only have
one third the virility and one tenth the brains. And eight years from
now you'll still be in deficit spending on both counts."

"Careful, venerable lord of my destiny," Clay admonished with a grin,
"remember how I spent my vacation and remember how you spent yours
before you go making unsubstantiated statements about my virility."

Kelly stood up. "If you two will excuse me, I'll go back to the
dispensary and take a good jolt