He said, "Do not kill me! Do not dare! Dianne, tell them to talk to me--not to shoot." I met Dianne's gaze. Her size in relation to me, was about normal. Her face was pale, but she seemed unhurt. She gasped. "Frank--Drake--don't try to kill him--you don't understand--" Why not kill him? He was holding Dianne in front of him--but from where I stood I could have sent a bullet into his brain and not endangered Dianne. Or would his death throes have crushed her? I did not dare fire, yet. Drake felt the same. He lowered his weapon; he pushed mine down. "Wait a minute, Frank. Easy." Togaro's smile widened. His broad, heavy face had a look of monstrous evil. He said, "Why, that is better. Now we will talk." "What do you want to say?" Drake demanded. "Let Dianne go. Dianne, climb down--" It brought a gibe. "How can she climb down?" I said, "We've got you. I can put a bullet into your head in a second. Do you know what a bullet is?" "I know. Yes, young man, I know very well. But you won't do that. Quiet, Dianne--stand quiet, I am not hurting you." His tone changed wholly as he admonished her. Ironic, to me; gentle, solicitous, and yet ironic also, to her. I threatened, "But I will! We'll give you one minute!" Drake pushed me back. "What have you got to say, Togaro? You're caught. You can't get smaller--we can kill you in an instant with these deadly weapons. You can't hurt us." He was indeed so wedged into the cabin that he could scarcely move. But Drake was making empty threats. Togaro interrupted him calmly, "Can't hurt you! But you cannot kill me so fast that I will not also kill Dianne. Crush her to death; here in my arms. Quiet, sweet one, I am not crushing you--yet." We saw now that Togaro's hand held a pellet of the drug, a pellet expanded to the size of a marble. He showed it to us. "The enlarging drug. I think I can get it into my mouth, Drake, before you can kill me. It will be effective ten minutes at least after my death. Did you know that? Ten minutes of my body growing, here in this small room--" He left the sentence to our imagination. Across his huge lap the cabin window was visible. Outside it I could glimpse the black void of space--a dull-red crescent hung out there, with white stars blazing around it. Our ship was here in space. A growth of Togaro's body, and he would burst the roof of this cabin and wreck the ship. Drake stammered, "But you--you would not dare--" "Nor would you," Togaro returned calmly. "You do not want me to crush Dianne. Or break this tiny ship and kill us all. I do not want it. Fear nothing, I am no more anxious to die than you. There is of it nothing for you to fear. I would not like to hurt my little Dianne." His hand encompassed the span of her shoulder and back with a gesture like a caress. We knew we were defeated. Drake said, "Yes. What do you want?" "Go now and tell them in the control room to land as soon as possible. That is simple."