The firstcomer roared: "Get out and find your own shelter! I don't propose to be crowded out by you or to crowd you out either and see your ugly blood and brains if there's a hit. Go, now!"
"Forgive me, sir! At once, sir!" the latecomer wailed; and scrambled away as the alarm continued to roar.
Reuben gasped at the "sirs" and looked at his neighbor. It was May! Trapped, no doubt, on an inspection tour of the level.
"Sir," he said respectfully, "if you wish to be alone, I can find another room."
"You may stay with me for company. Are you one of mine?" There was power in the general's voice and on his craggy face.
"Yes, sir. May's man Reuben, of the eighty-third level, Atomist."
May surveyed him, and Reuben noted that there were pouches of skin depending from cheekbones and the jaw line—dead-looking, coarse-pored skin.
"You're a well-made boy, Reuben. Do you have women?"
"Yes, sir," said Reuben hastily. "One after another—I always have women. I'm making up at this time to a charming thing called Selene. Well-rounded, yet firm, soft but supple, with long red hair and long white legs—"
"Spare me the details," muttered the general. "It takes all kinds. An Atomist, you said. That has a future, to be sure. I myself was a Controller long ago. The calling seems to have gone out of fashion—"