Link Raeburn laughed. "You won't do it then, or ever, Lonny. There isn't an ounce of fight left in you. The planet's got you. I've always believed that you had enough pearls stacked away to make a fortune on earth, but you kept putting the time for departure off into the future." His taunts acted as harsh irritants to Lonny Higgens, who doubled his fists and took a couple of steps forward. "Slap 'im down, Boss," urged Baron Munchy, and Lonny stopped, his shoulders falling. "That's right," he said, grinning at the little elf. "Fight to the death, like all these insensate creatures of Uranus. No, I'll not do it. I'm saving myself, against the day I'll get back to earth." "You're a fool," said Link Raeburn. "Next time I'll get you for keeps." "At least you can save it until we get up from here," returned Lonny, brushing past the other and examining the instruments. "Depth indication--now four thousand feet. And sinking slowly." With luck, they would be on the surface again in a few hours. Then he would either knock the tar out of Link Raeburn or kick him out in the mud. He felt a deepseated, lethargic contempt for the mud-fisher. The dapper man was a despicable murderer at heart, and now he felt only a distant sort of loathing for him. Lana was different. In a way she might have been a good sort. He had a hunch that Uranus was affecting her much as it had him, bringing forth his irritable nature, sapping his energy, dulling his sensations in a sluggish, remote way. He had an idea that she would cut an amazingly attractive figure in one of the late translucent evening gowns, back in one of the live spots of the populated planets. At the moment, she was highly intolerable and self-centered. He would do well to be rid of both of them. Baron Munchy was soaring up and down the room, catching midges, when Lonny descended to the lower decks. The atomic motors, he found, were in good condition for an emergency. The trouble with them was that they provided merely a horizontal propulsion. The natural buoyancy of the vessel, coupled with the lessening of surface pressure, would have to raise it from the murky depths. The lower deck was almost hemispherical in shape, and fully occupied with power apparatus. "They steal'm, Boss!" warned Baron Munchy vindictively. "Now you fight, huh?" "Fighting wouldn't do any good," Lonny explained wearily. "People don't fight on Uranus. They're always fagged out, enervated." "Fagged--" began the impish creature helplessly. "I mean that life is too boring to be taken seriously," went on Lonny. "Otherwise, I'd have knocked the slats out of that smirking back-biter long ago. I may have to do it yet." "You oughta fight'm," declared Baron Munchy angrily. "They steal house. Steal everything! Why no earthmen fight, Boss?"