"You mean," I said slowly, "you annihilated those men simply because they were after me?" The thing didn't change expression--I didn't really see how it could, what with its rigid crystalline structure--but it gave a slow nod. It seemed to have difficulty doing it, as though it weren't used to that particular form of expression. "But why?" I said, getting to my feet and staring at the creature. "Why go to these lengths to protect me? Is there something special about me?" Again the ponderous nod. Then the sugarfoot pointed at me, and pointed at its head. I simply shook my head. It did the action again, patiently. "Because I'm smart?" I choked, not really thinking this was the case. The lumpy red head moved from right to left and back to center again. "Then what?" I demanded. It looked about, suddenly, then pointed to the ground and shook its head again. "Not here, you mean?" The sugarfoot nodded, then raised a hand and beckoned. "You want me to come with you; is that it?" I said. It nodded, with less patience, and moved off a few paces. When I didn't go with it, it turned to face me again, and gave its head a questioning tilt. "Because," I answered its unspoken question, "I don't know if I can trust you, that's why." It stared at me with its wide-set eyes for a second, then pointed to the empty space in the street, then to the collapser, and nodded. "I--I should trust you because you didn't use the collapser on me? Because if your motives were bad, you would already have destroyed me?" The sugarfoot nodded violently. "Unh-uh!" I said, backing off. "Not a chance. You tell me why, and maybe I'll come along. But not before." Even as I said it, I felt regret for my own irrationality. Were its intentions even the best, it could certainly not prove them to me, or even demonstrate its reasons with the language barrier between us. It stood there, looking at me, apparently thinking hard. We seemed to be at an impasse. I didn't want to go with it. On the other hand, I didn't want it to go off and leave me with the most baffling mystery of my life unsolved. I had to know why it had spared me, and what it wanted. But an alien, on a strange planet, with that dragonish form, and the shark-mouth full of teeth, not to mention a thick three-foot tail ... I couldn't bring myself to trust it. At that moment, there was a shout down the street, and a flashing light. Someone was coming. Probably, I realized an instant later, the Security men from the rocket field. They had a gadget there that could not only spot, but track down, any use of atomic energy in the region. And there had been, within ten minutes of each other, two such uses of that all-annihilating collapser. The sugarfoot took a step backward. "Hold on," I said. "These guys are okay. Maybe, after I get a tranquillizer, I'll be more in the mood for coming with you. If you'll just wait a moment."