drive-plates—one of them a stocky, red-faced young man, the other a lame younger fellow with a crutch. Carlin asked them his question.

The red-faced individual answered with the same hostility of manner.

"You'll find no lodgings around here. Better go with the rest of your crowd. There's a big tourist hotel down in the city."

Carlin swore. "Blast it, I'm not a tourist. I'm an engineer sent here by a crazy psycho to spend a year on Earth—heaven knows why!"

The lame young Earthman looked at Carlin more closely. He had a thin, pleasant brown face with intelligent blue eyes.

"Oh, an Earth-treatment man?" he said. "A few come in all the time." He asked interestedly, "You're a Cosmic Engineer? Do you mind telling me what field?"

"Star-ship line chief surveyor," Carlin said wearily. "That means I lay out spaceport and beacon routes between star-worlds."

"I know what it means." The lame youngster nodded quietly. He hesitated, frowning slightly as though weighing something. Then, as if deciding, he spoke. "I'm Jonny Land. I think we could fix you up with lodgings if you don't mind putting up with a little discomfort."

"You mean, in your own home?" Carlin asked doubtfully. "Where is it?"

Jonny Land pointed to one of the low green ridges west of the spaceport.

"Just up on the ridge there. There's only my grandfather, my brother and sister, and myself. And we have an extra room."

The red-faced young Earthman made a sharp protest. "Jonny, what the blazes are you thinking of? You don't want this fellow in with you!"

The violence of his protest seemed uncalled-for to Carlin, even granting the general Earthman hostility to strangers.

Jonny Land quietly quelled the outburst. "I'm doing this, Loesser." He looked at Carlin. "Well, what about it? I warn you that you won't find the comforts of a big star-world apartment."

"I don't expect anything like that here," Carlin answered tiredly. He felt worn out by the voyage, the discouragingly primitive aspect of this place where he must live, the open unfriendliness. He nodded. "I'll try it. The name is Laird Carlin."

"If 

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