'
'Aren't you coming too?'
'I was only thinking, suppose the governor came back and wanted me?'
Albert gazed contemptuously at this exhibition of timidity--the
cowardice of a born valet, he deemed it.
'Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, 'if you--'
'I'll come,' said Simon boldly. 'If he wants me he must wait, that's
all.'
They descended together in Hugo's private lift, direct from the dome;
the Medical and Pharmaceutical Department was on the ground-floor.
Simon acted as lift-man, and slammed the grill when they emerged.
'Just open that again, Si,' Albert requested him.
'Why? What's up?'
'Just open it.'
Albert was sniffing about like a dog that is trying to decide whether
there is not something extremely attractive in the immediate
neighbourhood. He re-entered the lift, and nosed it curiously.
Suddenly he bent down and peered under the cushioned seat of the lift,
and drew forth an object that resembled in shape a canister of
disinfectant powder.
'Conf--!' he exclaimed, dropping it sharply. 'It's hot. What in the name
of--'
He kicked the object out of the lift on to the tessellated floor of a
passage which led to the Fish and Game Department.
'I bet you I can hold it,' said Simon boastfully.
And, at the expense of his fingers, he picked it up, and successfully
carried it into the Fish and Game Department, where a solitary light
(which burnt night and day) threw a dim radiance over vast surfaces of
white marble dominated by silver taps.
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