It took them three hours of angry work to exhaust the supply. They whittled chunks off the _hlorg_, tossed them in pans of the deadly fluid. With each slice they stopped momentarily to watch it turn violet, then black, as it died. The _hlorg_, dwindling in size, sensed the attack and slapped frantically at their ankles, sending out angry plumes of wet jelly, but they ducked and dodged and whittled some more. The _hlorg_ quivered and gurgled and wept pinkish goo all over the floor, but it grew smaller and weaker with every whack. "Hrunta must have spotted it and come down here alone," Jenkins panted between slices. "Maybe he slipped, lost his footing, I don't know--" They continued to work until the supply was exhausted. They had reduced the _hlorg_ to a quarter its previous size. "Check the other labs, see if they have some more," said Stone. "I already have," Bowman said. "They don't. This is it." "But we haven't got it all killed. There's still--" He pointed to the thing quailing in the corner. "I know. We're licked, that's all. There isn't any more of the stuff on the ship." They stopped and looked at each other suddenly. Then Jenkins said: "Oh, yes there is." There was silence. Bowman looked at Stone, and Stone looked at Bowman. They both looked at Jenkins. "Oh, no. Sorry. I decline." Stone shook his head slowly. "But we have to! There's no other way. If the enzyme system is inactivated, it's just protoplasm--there's no physiological or biochemical reason--" "You know what you can do with your physiology and biochemistry," Bowman said succinctly. "You can also count me out." He left them and the hatchway clanged after him. "Wally?" "Yeah." "It'll be months before we get back to Hospital Earth. We know how we can hold it in check until we get there." "Yeah." "Well?" Green Doctor Wally Stone sighed. "Greater love hath no man," he said wearily. "We'd better go tell Neelsen, I guess." * * * * * Black Doctor Turvold Neelsen's answer was a flat, unequivocal no. "It's monstrous and preposterous. I won't stand for it. Nobody will stand for it." "But you have the proof in your own hands," Jenkins said. "You saw the specimen that the Green Doctor brought you." Neelsen hunched back angrily. "I saw it." "And your impression of it? As a pathologist?" "I fail to see how my impression applies one way or the other--" "Doctor, sometimes we have to face facts. Remember?" "All right." Neelsen seemed to curl up into himself still further. "The specimen was stomach." "Human stomach?" "Human stomach." "But the only human on this ship that doesn't have a stomach is Hrunta," said Jenkins. "So the _hlorg_ ate him."