this strictly confidential, Fortesque--free her soul. That's the only way I could make the trade!"

"Oh, don't feel so bad, Montague.

She'll turn up. Why, no-

body lives forever you know." He laughed.

"Spare me the levity, Fortesque,"

"You should have taken the proper precautions, Monty. Why, I don't see any harm in confessing that I made a similar trade, and my young man here--" he gestured at the figure on the bed.

Montague Devil jumped up as though he had been impaled on a trident. "Oh, 11 blasphemy! he shouted. "That's her, I mean--that's

him, it!"

"Calm yourself, Monty."

"Fortesque, I tell you that is the body I traded to the blonde. I'd know it anywhere."

"Nonsense, Montague!

whom I traded....oh, dear me! I feel suddenly faint."

This is the body of my young man to

Oh, drat!

"You traded for a blonde, didn't you, Fortesque? We've been duped!"

"You've been duped, Monty. This young man--this FP--is so shy, so sensitive. He was as real as you and I."

"No you don't, Fortesque, That young man of yours was a fake." "Impossible!

That blonde--"

"That blonde was the original article. Don't you think I know blondes!"

Fortesque paused for a moment and considered. "Monty, it's no good our arguing about it. If it ever comes out that we let a free soul--"

"I won't say anything if you don't, said Fortesque Devil shuddering.

"Mum's the word?"

"Right you are. You know, he--or she--has probably been work- ing this dodge for years."

ahead.

"For centuries, you mean, said Fortesque.

"Staying one

Oh, how immoral! But what will we do, Monty? We can't go

21.