Van Alen smiled warmly. "I'm sorry, Dale. I can't tell you anything,
not until Daveen has been found. But that can't take long, now that
we've located you."
"Who's this Daveen?"
"A poet," van Alen said. "Also a remarkably skilled hypnotist.
We'll find him soon, and then the search will really be over." The
Antarctican seemed to be gazing _through_ Kesley, as if he were staring
all the way to his distant homeland. His eyes had turned cold again;
his face had hardened.
"Suppose I tell you you're a lunatic?" Kesley asked.
"Suppose you do," van Alen said animatedly. "You'd have every right to
the opinion. Care to join me in lunacy?"
"Eh?"
"Will you come with me--to Antarctica?"
"I'm not _that_ crazy," Kesley said. He laughed. "You want me to drop
everything--the farm, my whole life, just to go off with you to--to
_Antarctica_?"
"This is not your life," van Alen said. "Antarctica is. Will you come?"
Kesley laughed contemptuously, but said nothing.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come on," he said roughly. "Enter."
Tina came in and looked defiantly at both of them. She was a tall,
red-haired girl in her late twenties, wide-shouldered and high-bosomed,
and her eyes held the flash and fire that must have belonged to old
Lester once. She and Kesley had been sharing a room for six months.
"Still talking?" Tina asked.
"Is there anything special you want?" Kesley snapped.
"Just wanted to tell you lunch is getting cold, that's all. And you
left your plough standing in the field. That crazy mutie horse of yours
looks like it's asleep on its feet."
Kesley frowned. "Tell Tim to go down there and finish the furrow, will
you? I'll be in for lunch in a couple of minutes."
Tina glanced curiously toward van Alen and said, "With or without
company?"
"I'll be leaving in a few minutes," van Alen told her. "You needn't
prepare anything for me."
"Sorry to hear that," Tina said acidly. "We were looking forward to
feeding you." She turned and flounced out.
"Who's that?" van Alen asked.
"Lester's daughter--Lester's the old man. Her name's Tina. She lives
with me."
There was a visible stiffening of van Alen's manner. Leaning forward
anxiously, he said, "You--have no children yet, have you?"
"You kidding? That's all I need. Things are complicated enough around
here without--"
Van Alen rose abruptly. "I see. Well, I'll have to be leaving now,
Dale." He wrapped his cloak around his shoulders tightly and walked
across the living room. "It's going to be a long hard journey to the
Pole; I must begin at once."
He put his hand to the door. Kesley watched him open it.
"Hold it, van Alen. Don't go."
"Why?"
Kesley shook his head without replying. Van Alen looked at him for a
moment, shrugged, and turned a second time to leave.
Without really knowing why he was doing what he was about to do, Kesley
cupped his hands. "_Tina!_"
The girl reappeared and confronted him quizzically.
"Get upstairs and pack my things," Kesley ordered her. "I'm leaving."
"Leaving?"
"Right this minute," he said. "I'm leaving with _him_." He pointed
squarely at van Alen.