Part 2

It was still fine, even if she did look a little beat.

We went out into the hallway and I yelled for Harry. He answered. He seemed to be outside.

I looked out one of the ventilation slits. He was standing out there with his back to me, looking into the rainbow garden. The mists were rising in wispy colors here and there, and I could tell without looking at my chrono that the long Venusian night was approaching, for the distorted shapes of the trees were vague, and could no longer be seen more than a few yards away.

"Up here!" I said. And he looked up.

He pointed to the garden. "Thought I heard somebody calling out there," he said, pointing.

"Don't go away," I said. "And don't go in there, whatever you do. I'll be right out."

I grabbed Sukey's arm. "We'll surprise him," I told her.

* * * * *

Sukey Jones came up from behind Harry and put her hand on his arm. He turned and they just looked at each other for the space of half a minute.

Harry's voice was kind of choked. He said, "Sukey, I--"

And then we all heard it. It was a woman crying. The sound came from the garden. Harry took a step toward the mists.

"Wait," I said. And I shouted, "Mrs. Campbell, is that you?"

"Here!" Her voice was faint and plaintive. Just as I had remembered it.

"Come on out. We've come to take you home."

"I--I can't."

"How long has she been in there?" I asked Sukey. "Do you know?"

"All of the time, I suppose."

I shook my head. "It's risky business, but we can't leave her, I suppose. I'll go in."

"I can't let you do that," Harry said. "I'm the logical one to go. Listen!" We could hear her crying. A vexed, lost-little-girl sound.

I shoved Harry aside. "You don't know what you're getting into," I said. "Take Sukey, and--"

That was the first and only time that Harry ever swung at me. The first thing I knew, I was sitting on the ground with my head spinning.

Harry was looking down at me and grinning sardonically. "I hated to do that, Chuck," he said, "but you see, it has to be me that goes after her."

He turned and took both of Sukey's thin shoulders in his hands. He couldn't speak for a while. His eyes were talking, though; saying they were awfully sorry. And then he took a couple of steps into that colored mist before he stopped and looked back.

He was still smiling, but it was a secret smile. He said, "It's too bad, Sukey, but you know, eighteen million bucks are eighteen million bucks."

"What the--?" I said.

"Harry, darling, is that you?" The voice of Mrs. Campbell was closer now.

"Coming, Althea dear!" he said, and laughed at me. "Do you suppose I _wasted_ all those Thursdays, Chuck?" he said. "'Bye. Take care of Sukey for me. Althea and I'll be along later."

He turned his back on us and went deeper into the mists, calling her name, spreading the bushes with his hands and trying to see her.

He was hazy now, hardly visible.

But I saw Althea Campbell just an instant before he did. She came out of the rainbow mist from behind him, and her now-blonde hair glimmered with reds and greens, and blues and gold and purple. Her naked body was snow white. She had got her money's worth, I suppose. Marjud had promised her that pale complexion.

And the curious radiations had given her smooth legs and arms that were pearl-white and long, and supple, and graceful.

She came from behind Harry and put her arms around him.

All of them.