Marcel thrust up a hand and pushed back his cap. It was a movement full of significance.
"Sorry?" he cried, with an awkward laugh. "Guess you don't need to be sorry. I need to feel that way, acting foolish, gawking around here like some fool kid. But—you see—you're a—girl."
Keeko's smile broadened into a delicious ripple of laughter.
"Sure," she nodded. "You didn't guess I was a-jack-rabbit?"
Marcel was recovering. He, too, laughed.
"I didn't guess anything," he said. Then with a gesture of helplessness which further added to Keeko's amusement: "I couldn't. You see I'm—well—I'm just darned! That's all—just darned!"
"I know," the girl cried delightedly. "You didn't guess to find a girl around. You weren't looking to find anything diff'rent from those things they sort of experimented with when they first reckoned making a camping ground in space for life to move around on. But you haven't said about that old moose. I robbed you——"
"Oh, hell!" Marcel cried, flinging his head back in a happy, buoyant laugh. "We'll just cut that darn old moose right out of this thing. You're welcome to shoot up any old thing I've got. You're Keeko——"
"Who are you?"
"I—oh, I'm Marcel, and I come from—" He broke off and shook his head. "No, I can't hand you that."