"Kalinoff didn't mention any." Lamoureux emitted a laugh that sounded like an angry bark. "Kalinoff wouldn't know. _He_ was friendly with them. He did report that they were an intelligent race. It'll be too bad if they use their intelligence against us." McCracken thrust out his jaw. There was a streak of stubbornness in him, and he was not going to take too many dirty cracks lying down. He growled, "I think you're making a mountain out of an anthill." "Molehill," corrected Lamoureux. "Whatever it is. What if Kalinoff did say the Mercurians would help us? You can't take his word for it. Everybody knows what Kalinoff is." Lamoureux frowned. "Kalinoff is a great man and a great explorer." "They call him the interplanetary screwball." "Not on this expedition, they don't, McCracken. You will please keep a civil tongue in your head." "There's nothing wrong in what I'm saying. Kalinoff _is_ a screwball, and you know it, Captain. He's always playing practical jokes. Look at how he got that Martian senator into the same cage with a moon-snake, and locked the door on him. The senator had a fit. How was he to know the snake was harmless?" "You don't think Kalinoff would play jokes when his own life was at stake, do you?" "Once a screwball," insisted McCracken firmly, "always a screwball." Lamoureux lost patience. "Once an idiot, always an idiot. Get over to the ship and help with the unpacking. And remember, if we don't find Kalinoff, it'll be your fault, and God help you." * * * * * Having, he hoped, left McCracken feeling properly ashamed of himself, Lamoureux walked away. The responsibility was beginning to weigh him down. The other nineteen men in the expedition thought they were merely trying to rescue an intrepid explorer for the sake of human life, which was supposed to be sacred. They didn't know that, behind his screwball surface, Kalinoff was as shrewd as they came. He had made some valuable discoveries--and promptly staked out a claim to them. He had run across large quantities of stable isotopes of metals whose atomic numbers ranged from 95 to 110. These had remarkable and useful properties. They were, to begin with, of unusual value as catalysts in chemical reactions. For example, element 99, in the presence of air, was a more powerful oxidizing agent than platinum or palladium was a reducing agent, in the presence of hydrogen. And the oxidations could be controlled beautifully, could be made to affect almost any part of a complicated organic molecule at a time. Element 99 was recoverable, and could be used again and again. A few hundred grams of it alone might very well pay for the cost of the entire expedition. Add the value of a few kilos of elements 101 to 110, and Kalinoff had discovered enough to make him and a few other people rich for life.