"Yes, Mr. Shanachie is in," the girl said. "He asked me to give you your salary check if you came in this way." She held up a pink oblong of paper.
"Salary, then, is it?" said Kevan, reaching for it. "It must be that he remembered I said that I was broke. You know I never did learn what this job pays."
"I believe the pay for agents is ten dollars a week," said Colleen.
"Ten dollars a week?" said Kevan, feeling the rage grow in him. "Why, of all the doublecrossing, thieving—" He broke off and gulped. He'd just looked at the check and saw the figure that was written on it. Pay to the order of Kevan MacGreene $468,000.00. "There must be some mistake," he said in a weak voice. "This check is for almost a half a million dollars."
"No mistake," the dark-haired girl said with a smile. "You were working in the land of the Little People, weren't you?"
Kevan nodded.
"And you were there for a whole night?"
Kevan nodded again.
"Then there's no mistake," the girl said. "One night in the land of the Little People is the same as nine hundred years here. This is the year 2852 and that represents your back pay."
For a moment, the room spun about Kevan MacGreene's head. He gripped the desk hard and hung on and after a moment he could see a pair of emerald green eyes clearly. They looked friendly—and soothing.