The pterodactyl landed lightly on a frond of the opposite fern. Its absurd, leathery forehead wrinkled at him. Graff noted that it was barely out of range of his electroblast. Intelligent, sure enough, and an unusually fearless specimen to perch this close to man. At any other time he would have been intrigued by the opportunity of making friends with one of the intelligent winged reptiles who had learned to speak man's languages and, with good reason, shun his works. Now, he had other things on his mind. Like dying painfully in a few hours. Graff looked up sharply as enormous bat-like wings ceased their rustle. The lizard-bird's long, sloping forehead wrinkled even further. Its beak opened and closed several times. It cleared its throat. "City?" Then it was civilized, too. What had induced it to leave its communal eyrie in the San Mountains? The terries had avoided men for over fifty years. Many was the time that Graff, intent on stalking meat for the colonists, had been startled by a flock of pterodactyls winging overhead and shouting curses down at him in the three languages of the early settlers. "City?" the question was repeated more insistently. "Heatwave or New Kalamazoo?" "New Kalamazoo." A relieved nod of the triangular head. "This I thought. You wish knowledge which Heatwave man has man and girl from shif?" Graff's whole body tensed. "Yes! Do you know?" Another nod. "This I know. Name is Fuvina." "Fuvina?" The hunter repeated it with a frown. He knew the names of most of Heatwave's big shots; some were political criminals, escaped from Earth. Others were former residents of his own town who had left in search of an easier living than the continual struggle with marshy soil and carnivorous jungle. But he couldn't recall any Fuvina. Possibly a new arrival; possibly one of the smaller fry who had recently killed and looted his way to the top of bloody Heatwave society. Fuvina? Fuv-- Of course! The not-quite-flexible pterodactyl beak was incapable of labial sounds like _p_ and _b_, and transformed them into the labiodentals _f_ and _v_. Pubina! Max Pubina had left New Kalamazoo in a hurry three years ago after cutting some farmer's throat in a boundary dispute and, by combining organized raids on isolated families with the smuggling of the illicit Venusian dunging drug to Earth, had become a power of sorts. "You mean Pubina?" "This I said. Fuvina. He and other Heatwave men took man and girl from shif and placed them in own shif. Also took vig green vottle. Left one Heatwave man hidden here. Then flew that way in own shif." A fantastically large and fleshy wing gestured south. "Them I follow. Where Heatwave men stof, I see. Then I come vack." The terry drew an immense swallow of air to compensate for his long speech and shook himself. The great fern trembled in sympathy. * * * * *