"Fairly," the professor acknowledged, preoccupied with a clever idea. Perhaps existence on Venus wasn't going to be as unpleasant as he had anticipated. "From reading my mind, you know what this blaster can do, don't you?" "I'm afraid so." "Then you know what I expect of you?" "Yes, sahib. I'se comin', massa. To hear is to obey, effendi." The creature turned and went briskly back toward the camp, leaving the others to stumble after him. Mrs. Bernardi gave a shriek as his handsome scaled form emerged from the greenish-white underbrush, haloed in luminous yellow mist. Algol, the ship's cat, prudently took sanctuary behind her, then peered out to see what was going on and whether there was likely to be anything in it for him. "This is our native bearer," Professor Bernardi explained as the three scientists burst out of the jungle. "My name is Jrann-Pttt." The creature bowed low. "At your service, madame." "Oh, Carl!" Mrs. Bernardi clapped her hands. "He's just perfect! So thoughtful of you to find one that speaks English! I do hope you can cook, Pitt?" "I will do my best, madame." * * * * * Algol daintily picked his way through the mud toward the saurian, sniffed him with judicial deliberation; then, deciding that anyone who smelled so much like the better class of fish must be All Right, rubbed against his legs. "Well," remarked Miss Anspacher, using the side of the spaceship as a mirror by which to redden her somewhat prissy lips, "that makes it practically unanimous, doesn't it?" "All except Professor Bernardi," said Jrann-Pttt, looking at the scientist with what might have been a smile. "He doesn't like me." "I see that your telepathic powers are not quite accurate," the professor returned. "I do not dislike you; I distrust you." "The fact that the two terms are not entirely synonymous in your language would argue a certain degree of incipient civilization," the lizard-man observed. "You know, Carl," Mrs. Bernardi whispered, "he has an awfully funny way of talking, for a native." "Frankly I don't like this at all, Professor," Captain Greenfield said, mopping his brow with a limp handkerchief. "If I hadn't been off looking for a better berth for the ship--all this mud worries me--this'd never have happened." "You mean you would have let the lizard get away with Miss Anspacher?" The big man's face flushed crimson. "I don't think that's funny, Professor." Bernardi quickly changed the subject, for he realized that the captain, being by far the most muscular of the party, was not a man to trifle with. "Tell me, Greenfield, did you succeed in finding a better spot for the ship? I must admit I'm worried about that mud myself."