"He bloodied my nose and knocked me out," McFerson said. "He didn't mean to harm me. Gheal really is gentle as a kitten." "I think I will use your bones first, Arlen," said Renzu. "You may sit down beside McFerson. I may as well warn you that there is no chance of escape. The python guards the only way back and my Venusians enjoy the creation of another of their kind. They won't let a chance to see it be spoiled." Renzu began filling some woven baskets with the inanimate protoplasm as Arlen sat down beside his companion. "Could you run for it, if I knocked out the campfire?" Arlen asked. "I can run, but how will you knock out the fire?" Vic Arlen acted quickly. His hand brought the disintegrator out of his pocket and he fired straight into the center of the campfire. The atomic blast instantly consumed the inflammable material in the fire and the plateau was dark. "Run!" Arlen cried. "And look out for the python." Arlen sprang forward. He heard a leathery scrape ahead of him. It was the serpent. He dodged back. Suddenly from behind came a hoarse cry. Arlen turned, ready to blast the Venusian that had shouted. But the Venusian did not attack. Instead, it darted forward, and with a flying leap it sprang upon the python. A roar came from the Venusian's throat. It was Gheal. Arlen would have recognized the voice anywhere. The faint glow from the volcanoes showed him the edge of the plateau. Renzu was screaming behind him and he heard the pad-pad of the running feet of the three remaining Venusians. But Arlen was clear and McFerson was running beside him. Arlen took his flashlight from his pocket and used it to follow the narrow ledge down the mountain into the canyon. Behind the two men, sounds of pursuit grew fainter. "We're safe," Arlen said, slackening his pace. "Renzu won't follow us as long as he knows we're armed." "He's armed, too," McFerson said. "He wants our bones too badly to use a disintegrator on us," Arlen laughed. The two men traveled on. The Venusian dawn came swiftly. "You see, Mac," Arlen went on, "we're not human beings to Renzu, but part of an experiment. Science has overshadowed Renzu's sense of values. Perhaps he murdered Jimmy Brooks; we know he would have murdered us to perfect an experiment. Renzu was creating life, and he would kill to do it. He wanted to be the god of a world that started with a complex organism instead of a simple microbe." "The only trouble is that the life lacked instincts that it took terrestrial animals millions of years to acquire," McFerson added. "That's what creation may be, Mac," said Arlen. "We did more in a few minutes than Renzu did with all his scientific knowledge. Gheal learned the meaning of gratitude. I treated him kindly, and he repaid me by helping us escape."