"One of them got lively enough for poor old Azol, didn't it?" Professor Mantelish rumbled from his armchair. Trigger grimaced. Doctor Azol's fate might be one of the things that had given her a negative attitude towards plasmoids. With Mantelish and Doctor Gess Fayle, Azol had been the third of the three big U-League boys in charge of the initial investigation on Harvest Moon. As she remembered it, it was Azol who discovered that Plasmoids occasionally could be induced to absorb food. Almost any kind of food, it turned out, so long as it contained a sufficient quantity of protein. What had happened to Azol looked like a particularly unfortunate result of the discovery. It was assumed an untimely coronary had been the reason he had fallen helplessly into the feeding trough of one of the largest plasmoids. By the time he was found, all of him from the knees on up already had been absorbed. "I meant your efforts to get them to work," she said. Commissioner Tate looked at Mantelish. "You tell her about that part of it," he suggested. Mantelish shook his head. "I'd get too technical," he said resignedly. "I always do. At least they say so. You tell her." But Holati Tate's eyes had shifted suddenly to the table. "Hey, now!" he said in a low voice. Trigger followed his gaze. After a moment she made a soft, sucking sound of alarmed distaste. "Ugh!" she remarked. "It's moving!" "So it is," Holati said. "Towards me!" said Trigger. "I think--" "Don't get startled. Mantelish!" Mantelish already was coming up slowly behind Trigger's chair. "Don't move!" he cautioned her. "Why not?" said Trigger. "Hush, my dear." Mantelish laid a large, heavy hand on each of her shoulders and bore down slightly. "It's sensitive! This is very interesting. Very." Perhaps it was. She kept watching the plasmoid. It had thinned out somewhat and was gliding very slowly but very steadily across the table. Definitely in her direction. "Ho-ho!" said Mantelish in a thunderous murmur. "Perhaps it likes you, Trigger! Ho-ho!" He seemed immensely pleased. "Well," Trigger said helplessly, "I don't like it!" She wriggled slightly under Mantelish's hands. "And I'd sooner get out of this chair!" "Don't be childish, Trigger," said the professor annoyedly. "You're behaving as if it were, in some manner, offensive." "It is," she said. "Hush, my dear," Mantelish said absently, putting on a little more pressure. Trigger hushed resignedly. They watched. In about a minute, the gliding thing reached the edge of the table. Trigger gathered herself to duck out from under Mantelish's hands and go flying out of the chair if it looked as if the plasmoid was about to drop into her lap. But it stopped. For a few seconds it lay motionless. Then it gradually raised its front end and began waving it gently back and forth in the air. At her, Trigger suspected. "Yipes!" she said, horrified. The front end sank back. The plasmoid lay still again. After a minute it was still lying still.