n her expression. "Always some," she
laughed. Then her face went solemn. "Let them ride, for now, Frank. It's
all wonderful and unbelievable. Hug me again--I love you. Only--all this
is even more fantastically new to me than it is to you. Realize that,
please, Frank. I'm a month late in getting here and I'm still groping my
way. A little more time--for us both... Because you might be fumbling,
some, too."

Her tone was gentle. He saw that her eyes, meeting his, were honest and
clear. He felt the careful strength behind them, after a moment of hurt.
There was no rushing, one-way enthusiasm that might easily burn out and
blow up in a short time.

He held her close. "Sure, Nance," he said.

"You probably know that our group from Mars was followed, Frank. I hope
I'm not a jinx."

"Of course you're not. Somebody would have followed--sometime. We're
watching and listening. Just keep your Archer handy..."

The faint, shifting blips in the radar screens was an old story,
reminding him that certain things were no better than before, and that
some were worse. Somewhere there were other bubbtowns. There were
policing space forces, too. But for millions of miles around, this
cluster of eight hundred prefabs and the numerous larger bubbs that
served them, were all alone.

Nelsen looked out from his sundeck, and saw dangerous contrasts. The
worst, perhaps, was a spherical bubble of stellene. Inside it was a
great globe of water surrounded by air--a colossal dewdrop. Within it, a
man and two small boys--no doubt father and sons from Pallastown, were
swimming, horsing around, having a swell time--only a few feet from
nothing. Nelsen spoke softly into his radio-phone. "Leland--close down
the pool..."

It wasn't long before the perimeter watch, returning from a patrol that
had taken them some distance out, brought in a makeshift dwelling bubb
made from odds and ends of stellene. They had also picked up its
occupant, a lean comic character with an accent and a strange way of
talking.

"Funny that you'd turn up, here--Igor, is it?" Nelsen said dryly.

Igor sniffed, as if with sorrow. He had been roughed up, some. "Very
funny--also simple. You making a house, so I am making a house for this
identical purpose. People from Ceres are already being here; in
consequence, I am also arriving. Nobody are saying what are proper doing
and thinking--so I am informed. I am believing--okay, Igor. When being
not true, I am going away again."