"You're the perfect companion, Nada.... But now we must be practical. We must build a fire, find weapons, set up a shelter of some kind. I guess it will be night, pretty soon. And Charley said something about savage animals he had seen in the television. "We'll find a nice dry cave, and have a fire in front of the door. And skins of animals to sleep on. And pottery vessels to cook in. And you will find seeds and grown grain." "But first we must find a flint-bed. We need flint for tools, and to strike sparks to make a fire with. We will probably come across a chunk of virgin copper, too--it's found native." Presently they set off through the jungle. The mud seemed to be very abundant, and of a most sticky consistence. They sank into it ankle deep at every step, and vast masses of it clung to their feet. A mile they struggled on, without finding where a provident nature had left them even a single fragment of quartz, to say nothing of a mass of pure copper. "A darned shame," Eric grumbled, "to come forty million miles, and meet such a reception as this!" Nada stopped. "Eric," she said, "I'm tired. And I don't believe there's any rock here, anyway. You'll have to use wooden tools, sharpened in the fire." "Probably you're right. This soil seemed to be of alluvial origin. Shouldn't be surprised if the native rock is some hundreds of feet underground. Your idea is better." "You can make a fire by rubbing sticks together, can't you?" "It can be done, I'm sure. I've never tried it, myself. We need some dry sticks, first." They resumed the weary march, with a good fraction of the new planet adhering to their feet. Rain was still falling from the dark heavens in a steady, warm downpour. Dry wood seemed scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. "You didn't bring any matches, dear?" "Matches! Of course not! We're going back to Nature." "I hope we get a fire pretty soon." "If dry wood were gold dust, we couldn't buy a hot dog." "Eric, that reminds me that I'm hungry." He confessed to a few pangs of his own. They turned their attention to looking for banana trees, and coconut palms, but they did not seem to abound in the Venerian jungle. Even small animals that might have been slain with a broken branch had contrary ideas about the matter. At last, from sheer weariness, they stopped, and gathered branches to make a sloping shelter by a vast fallen tree-trunk. "This will keep out the rain--maybe--" Eric said hopefully. "And tomorrow, when it has quit raining--I'm sure we'll do better." They crept in, as gloomy night fell without. They lay in each other's arms, the body warmth oddly comforting. Nada cried a little. "Buck up," Eric advised her. "We're back to nature--where we've always wanted to be." * * * * *