"Look!" Mason exclaimed. "It's on a leash!" And Cassidy noticed the thong that extended from the creature to the human who was running along behind it. "To Wolruf he belongs," the girl explained. "One of them I can get for you too--if you want." Her slender hand reached out through the fence and tugged at Cassidy's sleeve. "To chase me wouldn't you like?" she asked, pouting. Glancing behind her, Cassidy spotted the girl's father bearing down on them in a sprint that was nothing short of phenomenal for his age. He began shouting with the last few strides and was in full lung when he hurled himself at the fence. "Git! Out! Away! I'll--" Riva moved back and glanced overhead and Papa, seeing some hidden significance in her gesture, lowered his voice. "You I'll tear into and apart I'll rip!" he went on in a menacing whisper. "Your limbs I'll scatter like--" "Papa, it's not afraid of you they are." "They're _not_?" He was disappointed. "The house they want to come in and see." He began working up a rage again, but caught himself and looked up into his daughter's face. "Mean you--_my_ house they want to see?" When she nodded Papa seized the lowest strand of wire and lifted the fence high enough for Cassidy and Mason to crawl under. "Why, arranged it can be, I think." Its architectural prominences rendered shadowless in the tri-solar light, the manor was even more imposing close at hand. Of stone construction, it flaunted millwork and beams whose rich carvings would have been welcome on any mansion in the known Galaxy. Mounting the steps, Mason observed, "Nice little layout they've got here." Riva moved closer to Cassidy. "Inside is cozy," she said behind a coy smile. "Play we can _really_ in there." Papa had been at the door for some time, fumbling with the lock. In a burst of impatience, he drew off and gave it a solid kick. Then he went back and tried rattling the handle. After a while there was a click and it swung open. Cassidy followed him into a blaze of iridescent color and unfamiliar form. The huge, circular room was like a vast diorama and it was impossible to tell exactly where the solid objects blended in with the jumbled geometric pattern of the wall. He walked across a carpet of undulant fibers that reached well above his ankles. And he tripped across a padded, Z-shaped slab that protruded from the wall but slithered into a U and retracted as soon as it received the burden of his weight. Laughing, Riva helped him up and he paused for a closer visual inspection of his outlandish surroundings. Objects of weird shapes and unguessable purposes hung from the ceiling, some changing form and size as he watched. Scattered about were articles of furniture (he guessed) that resembled giant starfish supported at their centers and extremities by coiled springs. Only, each arm was shaped like a trough that ran into the bowl-like central depression of the piece. * * * * *