ere seeing eye-to-eye,
even in the dark, and I worried about the effect on the others. I might
as well have worried about the effect of a light bulb on the sun. They
married or some such, refused time off, and the GG functioned, if
anything, better. It was almost indecent the way the five got along
together.

A new problem arose: temperature. We weren't reproducing actual
temperatures, but the rooms needed a marked change, for reality's sake.
I'd insisted on that, and having won the point, was stuck with it. It
was after 2 A.M.; I was alone in the office.

The sound of the outer door closing startled me. Footsteps approached; I
hurried to clean my desk, sweeping the bottle into the drawer.

"You're up too late. Go home." Frank had a nonarguable look in her eye.
"You're supposed to be getting sleep."

"I am, far more than before you guys began helping, but--"

"But with all that extra sleep, you're looking worse."

"I don't _need_ any more sleep!" I said angrily, then tried diversion,
"Been on a date?"

"Yes, but I thought I'd better check on you." She moved close to the
desk, and I remembered the last time we'd been alone, in the bar. Now I
was glad I wasn't drunk.

"What the devil are you up to?"

* * * * *

She pawed through the desk drawers. "Finding what you tried to hide--"

"Wait, Frank!" I yelled, too late.

She looked at the bottle, then me, with a strange expression: a little
pity--not patronizing--but mostly feminine understanding. "Soda pop? Of
course. You don't like alcohol, do you?"

"No." Gruffly.

Her eyes blinked rapidly, as though holding back tears. "I know what's
the matter with you; I _really_ know."

"There's nothing the matter with me that--"

"That beating this mess won't solve." We hadn't heard Mel enter. He
leaned casually against the door. "Terrific idea for a story."

I shrugged. "Seems to be homecoming night."

"Not quite," he glanced at his watch, "but wait another few minutes."

He was right: Harry, out of breath, was the last of the GG to arrive.

"Now what?" I asked. "Surely this meeting isn't an accident?"

Dex said thoughtfully, "No, not really, but it is in the sense you mean.
We didn't agree to appear tonight. Yet logically, it's time for the
temperature problem--well, I guess each of us came down to help."

What could I do? That was the GG, characteristically, so we talked
temperatures.

"What I was thinking," Harry began sl