"Yes. Passed _Brennschluss_ forty-eight hours ago." "What?" "Sure. They had you doped up for two days, till the syntheplasm had a chance to set." "How soon can I get out of bed?" "Depends. If you don't mind hobbling around on crutches, today probably. If you want to wait till you can walk, four or five days. What's your hurry, boy?" "I've got to take care of that stone worm, remember?" "Say, that's right! No one knew what to do, so they suspended it in a deep freeze until you could go to work. A hideous brute, I might add." "Will you ask the doctor to give me some crutches? Swell. First, though, I'd like a good meal. And listen, Kevin--I guess Teejay saved my life, at that. Want to tell her I'd like to see her?" "Of course," said Kevin, and left the white-walled infirmary, grinning from ear to ear. By the time Teejay arrived, Steve was eating his first solid meal in two days. "Hello," he said. He almost found himself adding, "Captain"--but he checked the impulse just in time. "McGann tells me you're ready to get to work today." "That's right." "Good. That stone worm won't stay in ice indefinitely--not when it lives on the sun-side of Mercury." "Teejay, I want to--well, I want to thank you for saving my life." The woman opened her cape, reached inside, took a pack of cigarettes from an inside pocket and puffed on one until it glowed. "Don't thank me," she said coolly. "It really isn't necessary. You're the only extra-zoo man aboard, Stedman, so we needed you. I'd have saved a valuable machine under the same circumstances." "Well, thanks anyway." "There's one thing more, Stedman. As far as I'm concerned, you haven't proven yourself yet. So the same conditions apply to our next landing point." "Where's that?" "Venus, of course. Do you think I want to play hop-scotch all over the Solar System? Well, you finish your meal and give that stone worm a nice comfortable bubble to live in." And Teejay departed. * * * * * Later, after he'd evacuated the air from one of the bubble-cages and increased the temperature to seven hundred degrees Fahrenheit, after he'd supervised a slow warming process for the worm and seen it deposited, still drowsy, in the bubble with sufficient quantities of silicon-compounds to keep it well fed, Steve hobbled with his crutches to the general lounge. Teejay sat there with half a dozen of the Venusian experts, for the hunt would be much more protracted on that teeming jungle-world. The woman stood up at once and crossed the floor to Steve. "How's the worm?" "Fine." He always felt a little edgy and on his guard when the woman spoke to him. "And how's the extra-zoo expert's bum leg?" "Coming along, I think."