came from behind him, automatically, and he turnedto see the slim young man stepping aside. For a second, their eyes metsquarely. A row of teeth flashed in a brief smile as the man startedaround him. "Guess I was thinking. Should have watched where I wasgoing."
The man went on down the street, and turned in at the restaurantentrance.
* * * * *
Hawkes lifted a foot that weighed a ton and slowly closed his mouth.He'd been facing away from the street light--and his face might havebeen hard to see. Yet....
It didn't fit. The young man must have known him!
He blanked it from his mind. He couldn't believe that it was anythingbut lack of recognition. It was hard to see here, where the other wasfacing the light, and he was in the shadow.
But it still meant that they were waiting, nearby.
He dashed up the stairs, expecting a rush at both landings. The normalsounds of the apartment house went on. He listened at his door, but hecould hear nothing except the same drip he had heard before. Slowly,he inserted the key and went in. The small bulb was still on. He creptalong, trying to move silently on floors that insisted on creaking.The living room was as he had left it, and he caught sight of Ellen onthe bed.
He spotted a mirror over one of the dressers, and used that to studymore of the bedroom. It seemed as empty as before.
Finally, he stepped inside. There was no one there but Ellen, and sheseemed to be asleep, doubled up in a position that might have made theunkind cords easier to stand. She moaned slightly as he untied hergently, but didn't awaken. Her breathing was regular, and her breathhad the odd muskiness of someone who has slept for several hours.
He found a bottle of liquor on the shelf where she had put it, andrinsed out a couple of glasses. It was good liquor--good enough totake without mixers, as they'd have to do.
She came awake when he called her, rubbing her eyes and then herwrists, where the cords had left a mark. But she was smiling. "Hi,Will. I knew you'd come back. Hey, not on an empty stomach."
"You need it--and so do I," he told her. "Bottoms up!"
They were big glasses. She gasped over it, but she downed it, thenreached for the water he had brought as a chaser. She swallowed, andblinked tears out of her eyes. "I don't usually drink."
He made no comment, but refilled the glass. The liquor had less effecton him than he'd expected, though he'd always had a good head for it.It took some of the edge off his worrying, though.
She giggled suddenly, and he frowned. She couldn't take much on anempty stomach, it seemed. Then he shrugged. Let her drink--maybe if hecould get her drunk, he could find something out; at least he mightlearn whether the slim young man had been there during the day.
"Like when you found your dad's cider," she said, and giggled again."You got awful--hp!--awful drunk, Willy, din't you? Youwere--so--funny!"
She was trying to be careful with her words already. She slid around,doing things that brought more honestly beautiful thigh into the lightthan Will had seen in ten years. He reached to adjust her dress, andshe giggled again, sliding against him.
"You kissed me then, Willy. Remember? Bet you don' remember!"
* * * * *
He began it coldly, deliberately. If he could work on her emotionsenough, he'd crack the wall of evasion and lies, somehow. He reachedfor her, calculating what would arouse her without causing any shockto bring her back to her senses.
He hadn't counted on the quickness of her reponse, nor the completeacceptance of his right with which she took it. The liquor had reducedher to the stage of a little girl who competely trusted her companion.She seemed as unconscious of her body as a child might be.
Instead of protesting, she reached down and began unfastening thebuttons on her dress. "'Syour turn now, Willy. Put you to bed lastnight, you put me to bed t'-night. Then you gotta kiss me good-night.Nighty-night, nighty-night."
He felt like a heel at first. And then he began to feel like aman--any man around a beautiful girl half-undressed, and getting moreso.
She slipped under the sheets, tossing out the last of her clothing,and crooning happily. "Gotta kiss me good-night, Willy. Nighty-night!"
He yanked the pull-cord savagely, cutting off the light, and fumblingin the darkness. After what seemed hours of awkwardness, he slid inbeside her, feeling her arms go around him in complete acceptance. Tohell with _them_! They could chase him some other time!
He pulled her to him, while his blood beat in his neck, and he beganto lose any conscious volition of what he was doing. He drew hertighter, while a great clot of emotion set fire to his brain. He--
Cold beyond anything he had known bit at him. A tremendous pressurewithin him seemed about to force him to explode outwards, and theshock jerked him into full awareness.
In a split second, he swung his eyes from the great, jagged landscapeon which he stood, up an impossible range of mountains that were allharsh blacks and cold whites, to a cold black sky in which the starswere blazing specks without a flicker. He saw the Earth above him,bigger than the moon had ever been, and with the dim outlines ofcontinents showing through the soft stuff that must be clouds.
He was on the moon! And naked, without air!
* * * * *
Almost at once, something clapped down around him, and the pressurelet up, while heat seemed to leap into the rocks under his feet andmake them comfortable. He gulped down the air that somehow seemed tostay close to him, instead of evaporating into the vacuum.
The moon! Now they had him!
Fear blazed in him--a stark, unreasoning terror that was like aphysical thing. _Run--but you can't run! They've got you! You can'tescape!_
The light blotted out, and then snapped on, more strongly. He stood inthe kitchen of the cold-water apartment, still naked, with bits ofchalky dust between his toes.
He had no time for reason. His brain seemed to have jumped over ahurdle and come down in a puddle beyond, foul with the stuff it hadfound there. He heard Ellen shriek, and then cry out again.
He lurched into the bedroom, while she let out another gurgling cry asthe light showed him in the doorway. She came out of the bed, leapingfor him, crying his name--cold sober! But he wanted none of her act.He shook her off.
"You damned alien! You filthy monster, disguised as a girl! When youget in a spot where I'm sure to find you out, you have a cute trick upyour sleeve--but it won't work. You can send me back there--back tothe rest of your kind, from wherever they came. But you won't fool meinto thinking you're human again. You can't pass one test!"
He wouldn't be fooled into thinking it was a dream, either. He'd beenphysically on the moon--the very dust on his feet proved that. Theymight drive him insane, but they wouldn't do it that way.
She was crying now, gasping out words that he only half heard. "I'mhuman, Will. Oh, I'm human!"
"Then prove it! Come here, and prove it!"
She cried again at that, as he pulled her down with him. But slowlyher crying quieted.
He awoke slowly, with sun-light streaming in the windows, and reachedfor her. He owed her more apologies than one, though he wasn't toosorry about most of it. She had proven herself human. And virginallyso. Her complete surrender still left something warm inside him,where only the madness and the fear had been before.
Then he jerked upright, as he found her gone. He cursed himself for afool, and listened for a stir and bustle from the kitchen, but therewas none.
* * * * *
He was getting used to dressing with a feeling of dire pressuredriving him on. He finished rapidly, and yanked the bedroom door open,just as he heard the outer lock click. She was coming in with a bottleof cream and a package of sausage as he reached the kitchen, and therewas a smile tucked into the corner of her mouth.
And this time, he knew she wouldn't have betrayed him. Yet the fearincreased in him. He darted past her as she leaned to kiss him,heading for the door. T
he room seemed to quiver. The hall was filledwith a faint golden haze!
He had to get out! He jerked backwards, caught her hand, and pulledher. "Ellen! We've got to get out!"
It was a half-articulate shout, and she resisted, but he begandragging her after him. Something fumbled at the lock, and a keyslipped into it. The door opened.
Hawkes didn't know what kind of an alien he expected. He knew that mencould never have thrown him to the moon and back, not in anotherthousand years. It had to be a monster.
But he should have known that monsters here came in human form--they'dhave to.
The fear rose to a shriek in his brain, and then died down as thehuman form entered. It was too normal--too familiar. A medium-sizedman, dressed in a suit as inconspicuous as his own, wearing a sillylittle mustache that no outland monster should ever wear.
The creature jumped in, slamming the