"I think I know a way to trap the killer." The policeman and Tabor looked startled. "Be careful, boy," said Tabor. "Do you want me to go with you?" "No. Don't worry about me." "Watch out for Firebird. She's on Venus now, and your father must have had a reason for his warning." "Bah! She's nothing but a Calamity Jane legend. Have you ever traded flames with her?" "I've seen men who have. They weren't alive to tell about it." "Spacemen dislike combat with a woman so you've built up a myth about her to give an excuse for not killing her. But if she is the one who killed my father she's going to pay for it." "Then why not let the police bring her in?" "What police? Four planets have put a price on her head and she walks free in the cities of any of them." "She's dangerous," Tabor repeated his warning. "And perhaps she is not the killer after all. There's no use crossing her trail needlessly." "We'll soon know," Nathan promised. He turned and strode out of the cavern of death while the two police officers began preparing his father's body for the trip back to the city under Tabor's direction. He paused a moment at the entrance and drew up the waterproof hood of his cloak and tied the knot beneath his chin, then went out into the sheeting rain. At the bottom of the steep and slippery trail leading from the cave waited Perseus, the white stallion imported from Earth. In a world still battling incessantly against the jungle the horse was one of the chief means of private transportation, even though practically extinct on Earth. Perseus nuzzled against Nathan's neck and the man rested his face against the horse's head for a moment. Loneliness and weariness descended upon Nathan. He was lonelier than he had ever known he could be, he thought. Thymar had never given much companionship to his son because their adventurous spirits had led them in opposite directions. But the mere knowledge of Thymar's existence somewhere in the universe was the only companionship Nathan had needed. Now that was gone. And somewhere on Venus was a murderer he had to kill. II It was after dark when Nathan reached Aquatown. The streets of the Venusian frontier village literally flowed with water, proving the accuracy of its naming. Lights on the corners and in front of the taverns were ghostly blobs in the rain. Few Earthmen were about, but the little polite Greenies of Venus swarmed the streets nodding and smiling when they saw Nathan. They knew and revered him as the great engineer from Earth who had brought lights and power to their wet, primitive world. Aquatown was only a frontier village with more than its quota of taverns to drain away the savings of the restless spacemen who stopped for a day or a week, waiting for a new cargo or for ship repairs in the nearby Universal Yards.