glanced dispiritedly out the window at the
perpetually cloudy sky and idly watched a rivulet of water race down the
dirty pane. He loosened his collar and futilely mopped at his neck with
the soggy handkerchief, then irritably flung it to the floor.

"Hey, Jo," he yelled to the bartender. "What's the matter with the
air-conditioning? I'm burning up."

"Take it easy," soothed the bartender, consulting a thermometer on the
wall behind him, "it's eighty-five in here. That's as low as the law
allows. Can't have too much difference in the temperature or all my
customers'd pass out when they go outside. Why don't you go into town?
They keep it comfortable under the dome."

"Don't this planet _ever_ cool off?" asked Tee.

The bartender chuckled. "I see you don't know too much about Thymis.
Sometimes it drops to ninety at night, but not too often. You ought to
be here sometime when the clouds part for a minute. If you're caught
outside then, it's third-degree burns for sure."

He glanced down at the nearly empty glass. "How about another rainbow?
If you get enough of them in you, you won't notice the heat--you won't
notice anything." He laughed uproariously at the hoary joke.

* * * * *

Tee looked at him disgustedly and without answering bent to his drink
once more. He felt someone jostle his elbow and turned sideways to allow
the newcomer access to the bar. After a moment he wiped his forehead on
his sleeve. The bartender placed another rainbow before him.

"Hey, I didn't order that," he cried.

The bartender nodded toward the next stool. "On him."

Tee turned and saw a barrel-chested red-haired giant holding up a drink
in the immemorial bar toast. He raised his own glass gingerly, but his
trembling hand caused the layers to mix and he stared ruefully at the
resultant clayey-looking mess.

The redhead laughed. "Mix another one, Jo."

"But--" Tee's face got red.

"I came in here to talk to you anyway," said the giant. "You own the
_Starduster_, don't you?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Like to get her out of hock?"

"Who says she's in hock?"

"Look," said the redhead. "Let's not kid each other. Everybody around
this port knows you blew in from Lemmyt last month and can't raise the
money to pay the port charges, much less the refueling fee. And it's no
secret that you're anxious to leave our fair planet." He winked
conspiringly at Tee.

"So?"

The redhead glanced at the barte