Barrow said, "Yes, he's telling the truth. But we have some time yet. Maybe the search--" * * * * * Mart strode to the window and looked out so the others wouldn't see his face. Less than three-quarters of an hour to search all of Callisto within a radius of fifty miles! * * * * * Through the pane he saw figures in groups of three searching the streets and buildings of Comprotown. That part of the search wouldn't be difficult. But the hills and the caves, and with only two autogiros. If she was there, out of sight in one of the caves, where the cruising ships couldn't see her.... Her father was right, but--The picture of Leah Barrow, smiling as he had last seen her, seemed to blur out the view from the window. Her impertinent little tilted nose, the soft tempting contours of her lips, the deep blueness of her eyes. He whirled from the window and began pacing the floor, trying to think of something they could do that wasn't being done. Again at the communicator, Captain Wayne was barking questions. "All available men and women are combing the town, sir," he reported, "with orders to break down any doors that are locked, to stop at nothing." "And outside, Captain?" "The two giros are our only real hope. But the men from the smelting plant are working afoot out of town. By nine-thirty they'll have covered a radius of about five miles." Corey returned, slamming the door viciously behind him. "Maybe we could trick him, sir," he suggested. "Pretend we'll give him a ship if he'll--" "A Venusian wouldn't trust his own mother," Barrow snapped. "He'd insist on taking off first and then radioing back where she is. And don't think he wouldn't check the fuel tanks." "I wish you'd let me and Wayne work on him, anyway." Director Barrow didn't answer. Mart growled, "If Leah dies, I'm going to take that filthy pirate and--" Wayne's voice was bitter. "Venusians can't help what they are. Blame the Earth council that sold them those ships. If they had used more sense, there wouldn't be a Venusian off Venus." Mart nodded. If the council hadn't pulled that boner twenty years before, there would be no trouble with the Venusians. Venusians were, compared to Earth standards, a strange combination of genius and idiocy. Brilliant mathematicians, they had no mechanical ingenuity whatever. Linguists who could speak any language fluently after hearing it a few hours, not one of them could create a child's wind-up toy. Knowing the laws of leverage, they constructed their buildings by manual labor alone. Able to operate any machine as long as it was in good working order, they couldn't as much as figure out how to repair a clogged fuel-line.