gging faith in me, I would not have the courage to bear the burdens
of everyday life."

She stamped her foot.

"Stop it!"

"All right." But he said quietly, "You are a good kid, Sally. You know,
it's not too bright of me to mourn."

She drew a deep breath.

"That's better! Now, I want----"

There was a gangling figure walking down the concrete path between the
trim, monotonous cottages that were officers' quarters at the Shed.

Joe said sharply: "That's Haney! What's he doing here?" He called,
"Haney!"

Haney's manner took on purpose. He came across the grass--the lawns
around the officers' quarters contained the only grass in twenty miles.

"Hiya," said Haney uncomfortably. He spoke politely to Sally. "Hiya.
Uh--you want to get in on the party, Joe?"

"What kind?"

"The party Mike was talkin' about," said Haney. "He's set it up. He
wants me to get you and a kinda--uh--undercover tip-off to Major Holt."

Joe stirred. Sally said hospitably: "Sit down. You've noticed that my
father gave you full security clearance, so you can go anywhere?"

Haney perched awkwardly on the edge of the porch.

"Yeah. That's helped with the party. It's how I got here, as far as that
goes. Mike's on top of the world."

"Shoot it," said Joe.

"Y'know he's been pretty bitter about things," said Haney carefully.
"He's been sayin' that little guys like him ought to be the spacemen.
There's half a dozen other little guys been working on the Platform too.
They can get in cracks an' buck rivets an' so on. Useful. He's had 'em
all hopped up on the fact that the Platform coulda been finished months
ago if it'd been built for them, an' they could get to the moon an' back
while full-sized guys couldn't an' so on. Remember?"

"I remember," said Sally.

"They've all been beefin' about it," explained Haney. "People know how
they feel. So today Mike went and talked to one or two of 'em. An' they
started actin' mysterious, passin' messages back an' forth an' so on.
Little guys, actin' important. Security guys wouldn't notice 'em much.
Y'don't take a guy Mike's size serious, unless you know him. Then he's
the same as anybody else. So the security guys didn't pay any attention
to him. But some other guys did. Some special other guys. They saw those
little fellas actin' like they were cookin' up somethin' fancy. An' they
bit."

"Bit?" asked Sally.

"They got curious. So Mike an' his gang got confidential. An' they're
going to have help