l year
'round; very few storms of any kind, although there's a hot rain almost
every night for about half an hour. The temperature goes down to about
90 at night; up to 110-115 days."

"No wonder they told me to buy light clothing."

"Yeah, it's sure hot. We'd go mostly naked, except the actinic's really
fierce. Be sure to wear a hat all the time outdoors, and light gloves.
If your eyes start to smart, wear dark goggles."

"Thanks for the tips, Chum, I appreciate 'em. I'd begun to notice skin
itching, but thought it might be this jungle."

They broke through the final wall of foliage and Hanlon saw a large
cleared space ahead that must have been roughly a half-mile across.
There were quite a number of buildings, mostly windowless, and he
decided they were storehouses.

"There's the messhall," his new-found friend pointed.

They went on to another long, low, bungalow-type building, inside which
Hanlon saw a long hall from which opened dozens of doors on either side.
The other men disappeared into one or another of the rooms, and the
young fellow stopped at another door. "Grab the first room that has a
key in the lock outside," he said. "They're all alike."

The SS man found one, with the number "17" on the door, and went in. The
room was small but comfortably furnished. The bed had a good mattress,
he found, and white linen sheets and a thin, fleecy blanket folded on
the foot. There was a big easy chair, a closet for his clothes and a
dresser with four drawers. Glo-lights were set in the ceiling, and there
was another on a standard by the big chair for easy reading. A door
opened into another room which proved to be a compact toilet and shower.
Everything was immaculately clean, and the air was cooled and sweet from
air-conditioning.

"Not bad, not bad at all," Hanlon said half-aloud as he unpacked and
stored his things. Then he took a shower. "Man, are you going to get
plenty of work-outs, in this heat," he apostrophised the shower,
thankfully. Dressing again, he went out to locate Peter Philander, his
new boss.

He stopped at the messhall, and there he found the cook, a jolly,
roly-poly sort of man. He introduced himself and they chatted for a few
minutes.

"I'm going to like this guy--hope they're all as nice and friendly,"
Hanlon thought. "Where's the super's office?" he asked, and the cook
pointed it out.

Entering the office-shack, Hanlon found himself in a fairly large room
with a number of desks an