Channing answered. "It is considered bad taste for a secretary to make passes at her boss. Think of his wife and kids."
"You have neither."
"Maybe so. But it is still not proper for a secretary to—"
"You can't call me a secretary in that tone of voice," snapped Arden. "I quit! I resign! I refuse to be secretary to a man like you!"
Channing looked helplessly at Franks.
Walt looked at Arden, saw what was in her eyes, and told Channing: "See if you can wriggle out of what comes next!" He took Joe by the arm and said: "Joe, now that the ban is off, may I buy you a drink?"
And Joe answered: "It is a beautiful night out, isn't it?"
It is always a beautiful night on Venus Equilateral. The stars shine forever in a sky that holds a molten ball. Sol flares endlessly in an absolutely black, star-studded sky. There is no moon. The air is always soft and warm and unchanging.
And at the moment that Channing was finding out why Arden resigned, a little man of Northern Venus handed a message to the operator in the International Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. It went out on the land wires to Hawaii; to Luna; to Venus Equilateral; to the rotating relay stations that circle Venus five hundred miles above the planet; down through the raging heaviside layer to Northern Landing; and across the Palanortis Country to Yoralen.
Channing was still investigating his secretary's resignation when Korvus, the Magnificent, read: