He turned and looked at the liquid where his ship had disintegrated. Bobbing near the surface was the plastic of the seats. Caine frowned. The boy was running at him again, arms flailing, and Caine felt the sting of the boy's fists striking him. He pushed the boy back so that he fell sprawled on the rock surface. "It's all around us!" the boy screamed. "The damned stuff is all around us. You get us out of here, Driver. Do you hear, you get us out of here!" The girl stood over the wild boy. "You know, Vanny, you're really a jolly fellow." "You keep your mouth shut!" he yelled at her. The girl turned away and looked at Caine. "What do we do, just stand here?" Caine watched the contained look on her face. He knew she was frightened and feeling the panic that was so obvious in the boy. But she stood very straight and her voice was very steady. She would not show her fear. Caine pointed at the plastic. "The seat covering didn't disintegrate and neither did the picture. Only the metal of the ship." "So?" she said. "So maybe we wouldn't disintegrate either." Caine walked down the hill and crouched at the edge of the liquid. The girl followed and waited a few feet behind him. The boy still lay sprawled near the top of the hill, his darting eyes watching them. Caine took a handkerchief from his pocket and dropped it into the liquid. It floated until it was soaked through and then it sank. "All right," the girl said. "How do we find out what it does to human flesh?" Caine looked back at the boy. The boy slammed his palms back against the rock and his body tightened so that the cords of his neck stuck out. His lips trembled. Caine kept his eyes upon the boy, flexed his fingers, and then drove his hand into the liquid. The girl screamed and her hand flew against her mouth. The boy lay twitching against the rock, his eyes upon Caine's submerged arm. Caine brought his hand out of the liquid. The metal snap that had fastened his sleeve at the wrist was gone and so was the small gold ring he had worn on his little finger. But there was no trace of effect on his skin. Caine stood up. There was only the sound of the whispering leaves and in the sky an infrequent sun appeared and edged toward the tops of the trees, sending its glittering reflection into the depths of the moat-like liquid around them. Caine pointed to the vine-trees at the other side. "There's the direction of the nearest post. We'd better start." The boy scrambled to his feet. He stood, feet spread, like a thin scarecrow. "You're not going to get me into that stuff! You can't make me do that. Do you hear me?" His voice was a screeching whine that rose and fell through the peace of the thick jungle. "I'm not going to make you do anything," Caine said, unbuckling his holster. "You can stay here and starve. It'll be nobody's loss. Stay here. Both of you," he said, looking at the girl.