Flint's fingers tightened on the girl's arm. "Greeno," he said, "we have to get out of here, hide in the woods." He said it sadly, tired of the game now. He had forgotten it wasn't over. He looked down into the girl's face. "Miss Vaun," he said quickly, "this was all my fault. I won't ask you to forgive me but I want you to know I'm sorry, not for trying to do what I could to protect the feather-deer, but because this business came so close to ending in a tragedy much worse than your slaughtering them all." He dropped his hands, turned to the jungle. Greeno was standing at the edge of the woods, waiting for him. He started walking slowly. Then suddenly he turned, came back to the girl quickly. "Might as well be shot for a sheep as a lamb," he said. He put a hand under her chin, kissed her soundly on the lips, then ran toward the woods. When he was halfway there, he heard her cry, "Mr. Flint! Wait!" It occurred to him that she probably didn't even know his first name. He didn't look back. And Miss Karen Vaun did a very strange thing. She had one hand behind her as Flint ran away. Now she brought it forth and in it was Flint's own ice pistol. She raised it, took careful aim and pulled the trigger. Flint's legs stopped in midstride, knees bent one before the other, like a stop-motion movie. He sprawled forward. Before he could get up, the girl was beside him. She sat down on his back, pinning him to the ground. "Next time you kiss a girl without knowing whether she wants to be kissed or not," she said, "hang onto your gun." Then the police, with Hudson and Leggett, were crowded around them. "Are you all right, Miss Vaun?" Flint lay there feeling very foolish. But the girl ignored the crowd, still talking to him, "You didn't know I was an ice pistol expert, too, did you? You didn't know I was in the fur business because my father used to be a trapper on Venus. When I was twelve years old, I could bring down a tigodon at a half a mile." The beefy-faced patrolman, his nose bandaged now, said, "If you'll get up, Miss Vaun, we'll take care of him now." The others were staring at the space bat, flopping about feebly a short distance away, its awful strength spent. "Leggett," the fur merchant said to the lawyer, "think what a _rug_ that would make for the firm's front office!" "Miss Vaun can also come into a nice bit of cash from that circus for it," one of the other patrolmen said. "This is her land--or soon will be--and the bat's on it. Where Flint's going, he won't be able to claim anything." The big patrolman helped Karen up. Flint stumbled to his feet. The patrolman grabbed him by the collar, roughly. "Come along, kidnapper," he said. Karen Vaun stared at the patrolman blankly. "_Kidnapper?_" * * * * * The patrolman frowned. "Certainly, Miss Vaun. Don't you know this guy engineered the whole business--having you taken off his plane? He and that Venusian were going to hold you for ransom."