was mistaken—that you were going to serve us well."

Yancey hated the big man for making him feel like a small boy. "I can't see that my taking Selo with me will interfere with my work, sir," he stammered.

The Commandant snorted. "You're making two mistakes. You're aligning yourself with a Venusian. And you're taking a woman to an isolated humidi-hut. I can't order you not to do this, Ritter. You're within your rights. But I am asking you to reconsider." The tone was surprisingly conciliatory.

Yancey shook his head. "I can't go back on my word now, sir. She's counting on it, and frankly, so am I. There won't be no trouble with her, I can promise you that. I'll be able to do an even better job if I'm not so lonely out there."

There was a little pause before the Commandant stood and faced Ritter across the desk. "As I said, I have no authority to forbid your taking the woman with you. I can quite understand that loneliness is a fearful thing. But I've also learned in my stay here, Ritter, that there are other pressures of even greater intensity."

Yancey avoided the calm gray eyes of his superior. "You don't know Selo, sir. She's different."

And on that note the interview was concluded.

On the nightmare trip back to the humidi-hut, Selo was sturdily self-reliant. In fact, on several occasions when the shifting dust made footing insecure, she came to Yancey's assistance. It was Selo who found the auxiliary water cache, one day's journey from the humidi-hut, and led Yancey to it when he had lost the trail. Nature seemed to have equipped Selo for the environmental hazards of the Desert Rouge.

In the early days of their life at the humidi-hut, Yancey worked constantly to convince himself that things were as he had imagined they would be. Certainly Selo was a tireless worker. Her only concern was his comfort. Nonetheless, she was, he decided after two months, a wonderful servant, but no companion.

Her attitude toward Yancey was depressingly similar to that she had toward her uncle, the restaurant owner. This was a strange mixture of respect and fear. And, at times, as he sat alone with her through an endless evening, it came to Yancey that there was also an element of hate.

He found two more small quolla stones, but Selo failed to share his enthusiasm for the gems. She regarded them with a stolid indifference. He remembered that the 

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