"Lucky Ina didn't agree with you," grunted Jay wearily. "Jay," cried the girl, her eyes moist, "please believe me. I have regretted saying what I did every day we have been marooned here. Animat or man, you are worth a hundred ordinary men." "Save your flattery for those who want it," said Jay gruffly. "You're not fooling me. Ina knows what you are. Get back to bed." Thela's eyes flashed. "I hate Ina. She's cruel and scheming. She's only using you!" Jay pushed the girl away back toward the damp heap of hastily gathered leaves and brush where she had been sleeping. He heard her sobbing for several minutes before she again dropped off. And the pale gray light outside strengthened.... * * * * * Higher and higher they climbed the mountain slope. The cave where they had rested now lay hundreds of feet below. The fog thinned and the glow of the swollen sun was a brighter blur above them. They could see for more than a hundred feet on either hand and above. "Spacer should find us easier up here," Onin said. "If we can only find a plateau or wide bench where they can land. And the two rocket flares I brought along should help." "We might even find an abandoned trading station," Jay told him. "Before the Frogs became hostile several hundred of them were built in the uplands. A few of them are still in operation, or were at the period I seem to recall." "I hope," said Onin fervently, "we'll find a fort or spaceport." "Could be, but we haven't stumbled across any discarded plastin cartons," was Jay's dry rejoinder. "They're stacked buckle-high around most settlements on Venus." The little man, Desix Owun, came breathlessly up from the rear of the straggling party. "I saw Frogs on our trail," his high voice shrilled, "hundreds of 'em. Gimme a stitcher." Jay chuckled at Onin's raised eyebrows. "Means an expoder," he explained. He turned to the ex-animat. "Ina has an extra gun, the one Thela had. Tell her I said to give it to you." Desix Owun's shifty eyes gleamed delightedly. He hurried down to where the two women toiled upward. "I'm going back with the grenades, Jay," the lanky man said. He took a swipe at his huge nose. "Keep climbing while I cover the rear." "I'd rather go back," objected Jay. "Some of them may have gone ahead of us," said Onin grimly, "and they'll be pushing rocks and spears down at you. We're trapped here on the slope." Jay could see the logic of the older man's words. He climbed upward along the broken trail of ledges and watercourses more swiftly. And emerged suddenly, between two towering walls of shattered pink and black stone, on the edge of a grassy plateau-like expanse--the flattened top of the mountain they were ascending! He turned to call down to the others, and a spear grazed his shoulder. From below three explosions, raggedly spaced, told of the effectiveness of the crude grenades. Then he turned to face the unknown enemies of the plateau.