it as soon as I get squared away. I could inflate my bubb, and sleep
in the yard in it, if I had to. Then, as usual, off the Earth, you'll
expect me to earn my breathing air and keep, after a couple of days,
whether I can pay instead or not. That's fine with me, of course.
There's another matter which I'd like to discuss, but that can be
later."

"No sleeping out," Huth laughed. "That's just where people get careless.
There are plenty of quarters available since the retreat of settlers
almost emptied this world of terrestrial intrusion--except for us here
and the die-hard desert rats, and the new, screwball adventurers... By
the way, if it ever becomes important, the deserts are safe--at least
from what you just saw--as you probably know..."

Nelsen passed through an airlock, where live steam and a special
silicone oil accomplished the all-important disinfection of his Archer,
his bubb, and the outside of his small, sealed baggage roll. Armor and
bubb he left racked with rows of others.

It wasn't till he got into the reception dome lounge that he saw Nance
Codiss. She didn't rush at him. Reserve had dropped over them both again
as if in reconsideration of a contact made important too suddenly. He
clasped her fingers, then just stood looking at her. Lately, they had
exchanged a few pictures.

"Your photographs don't lie, Nance," he said at last.

"Yours do, Frank," she answered with complete poise. "You look a lot
less grim and tired."

"Wait," he told her. "I'll be right back..."

He went with Ed Huth to ditch his roll in his sleeping cubicle, get
cleaned up and change his clothes.

She _was_ beautiful, she had grave moods, she was wearing his fabulous
bracelet--if only not to offend him. But when he returned, he met two of
the girls who had come out to Mars with her--a nurse and another lab
technician. They were the bubbly type, full of bravado and giggles for
their strange, new surroundings. For a moment he felt far too old at
twenty-four for Nance's twenty. He wondered regretfully if her being
here was no more than part of his excuse for getting away from the Belt
and from the sense of ultimate human disaster building up.

But much of his feeling of separation from her disappeared as they sat
alone in the lounge, talking--first about Jarviston, then about here.
Nance had available information about the thickets pretty well down pat.

"You can't keep those plants alive here at the Station, Frank," she sai