The only thing he could think of with which to compare the Cirissins was the intestinal complex of an anemic elephant. It was not an entirely satisfactory comparison; but then, from his point of view, the Cirissins were entirely unsatisfactory creatures. Each of the four he had seen was nearly twice his size. They had no recognizable features such as eyes, ears, nose, head, arms or legs. Tentacle-like protrusions of various size and length seemed to serve as the sensory and prehensile organs. Wayne had identified one waving, restless flexible stalk as the eye. He suspected another of being the mouth, except that it apparently wasn't used for talking. The voice came from somewhere deep inside the convoluted mass of pastel-streaked tissue. "Wand tog?" the Cirissin rumbled. Wayne said, "Yes. Do you mind telling me what you want a high dragon bump _for_?" "Blast away hearth," the Cirissin replied unhesitatingly. Wayne swallowed and found it unnaturally difficult to do so. "To blast away earth?" he said. "You can do that with just one high dragon bump?" "Certificate. Alteration energy maguntoot. Compilated, though. Want splain?" Wayne said, "Never mind. I believe you. Just tell me this: Why? Who do you feel it's necessary to do it?" "Cause _is_ necessary," the Cirissin explained. "Hearth no good. Whee dun lake. Godda gut red oft." Sheilah gasped, "Why the inhuman beasts!" Wayne expended one sidelong silencing glance on her and then said, "I see. And just suppose now that I don't give you a high dragon bump? What do you do then?" "Use hot tummy ache your arnium fishing bumps. Got them us elves. Tooking longthier, more hurtful, but can. Few don't gives high dragon bump tweddy far whores, thin godda." Wayne was silent for a while, staring at the alien creature, aware of Sheilah staring at him. "Twenty-four hours," he muttered. "Then they use uranium fission bombs. Oh, hell!" Finally he shrugged. "All right, I'll do it. Anyway, I'll try. I'll do what I can." Sheilah said, "Hey, listen mister, you can't ..." "Shut up!" Wayne snapped. "How do you know what I can do? You just let me handle this." "No sea juicing?" the Cirissin asked, waving his eye stem at Sheilah. "No. No sea juicing, and no torch hair either, please. I just didn't understand what you wanted at first. Now, if I could talk to your captain--or, are you the captain?" The Cirissin replied, "I spoke man. Name Orealgrailbliqu. Capitate nod sparking merry can languish. I only earning languish. Gut, hah? Tree whacks." "Uh, yeah, very good indeed," Wayne said. "And in only three weeks! Now, Mr.--you don't mind if I call you O'Reilly, do you? Well, then, O'Reilly, do you have any suggestions as to how I should go about getting you a high dragon bump? You want me to make you one? Or--" "Yukon mike?" O'Reilly asked.