Message no. 4, except for a slight variation in camouflage, ran true to
form:
_a;sldkfj a;sldkfj a;sldkfj a;sldkfj Cai: Habe te snoll dopers
ensing? Wotnid ne Fieu Dayol ist ifederereret, hid jestig snoll
doper. Gind ed, olro--Jilka. a;sldkfj a;sldkfj a;sldkfj a;sldkfj_
Quidley sighed. What, he asked himself, standing in the library aisle
and staring at the indecipherable words, was a normal girl like Kay
doing in such a childish secret society? From the way she and her
correspondents carried on you'd almost think they were Martian girl
scouts on an interplanetary camping trip, trying for their merit badges
in communications!
You could hardly call Kay a girl scout, though.
Nevertheless, she was the key figure in the _snoll-doper_ enigma. The
fact annoyed him, especially when he considered that a _snoll doper_,
for all he knew, could be anything from a Chinese fortune cooky to an
H-bomb.
He remembered Kay's odd accent. Was that the way a person would speak
English if her own language ran something like "_ist ifedereret, hid
jestig snoll doper adwo_?"
He remembered the way she had looked at him in the coffee bar.
He remembered the material of her dress.
He remembered how she had come to his room.
"I didn't know you had a taste for Taine."
* * * * *
Her voice seemed to come from far away, but she was standing right
beside him, tall and bewitching; Helenesque as ever. Her blue eyes
became great wells into which he found himself falling. With an effort,
he pulled himself back. "You're early tonight," he said lamely.
She appropriated the message, read it. "Put the book back," she said
presently. Then, when he complied: "Come on."
"Where are we going?"
"I'm going to deliver a _snoll doper_ to Jilka. After that I'm going to
take you home to meet my folks."
The relieved sigh he heard was his own.
They climbed into her convertible and she nosed it into the moving line
of cars. "How long have you been reading my mail?" she asked.
"Since the night before I met you."
"Was that the reason you spilled the sugar?"
"Part of the reason," he said. "What's a _snoll doper_?"