"I have not introduced myself. I am known as V'Naric. If you wish to know more about us I think your friend there can tell you. It would be amusing to hear about us from his lips." The men were amazed as the creature gestured toward Devries with the pistol. Again the eyes changed color, this time to a soft green which must have signified amusement. Had the creature read Devries's mind? Yes, he knew them, or rather he'd heard something about them; this was the first one he'd actually seen. "We're in a spot now," he said in a low tone to his friends. "Those are the Proktols, inhabitants of the single moon of Neptune! They usually stick pretty close to home, but once they go on the warpath, or rather the space-path, you can bet something's up." "Yes, yes, go on," said V'Naric in his clipped voice, his eyes still green with amusement. But at that moment the men heard the inner-lock clang shut, and a sudden roar of the rockets. Too late, they realized V'Naric had held their attention with conversation while a few of his men sneaked off to get the spacer under way. They leaped to the ports and saw the _Wasp_ drifting free. They saw something else. A flame leaped from this ship, touched the _Wasp_ and lingered there. A circular spot on its silvery hull glowed suddenly red. Ross was frantically trying to swing the _Wasp_ away. "Good Lord! Ross!" Janus sprang toward V'Naric and clutched at him. "Stop it! One of our men is still aboard back there!" V'Naric deliberately turned his back. They saw the thin shell of the _Wasp_ burst outward. "You murdering devils!" yelled Ketrik, suddenly berserk. He leaped toward V'Naric in blind fury, reaching out with his hands. V'Naric stepped aside, brought up his flame-pistol and calmly crashed the butt of it down upon Ketrik's head. Ketrik crumpled. V'Naric turned to Devries casually, his eyes now black and placid. "You were saying?" Devries went numb. He could only barely feel Blake's and Janus' hands restraining him as he tried to leap forward. But his brain was a searing thing of fire. "I was saying you're a blight on the universe, you damned unholy devils!" he shrieked. "You scum, you spawn of hell, you're unfit to inhabit the same space with decent men! I know what you do! I've heard all about you! If I ever get back to Earth I'll bring men out here to blast your filthy planet from the skies!" He shrieked other things, shrieked 'til his throat was raw. When the red mist cleared from before Devries' eyes he saw V'Naric standing there complacently with his men around him. V'Naric opened his gash of a mouth. He uttered four sentences in that emotionless, precise English: "I am really disappointed. You do not half do us justice. We are actually much worse than you paint us. I think you will soon have occasion to realize that."