He came down again and strode quickly across the quadrangle toward the wood platform which would serve as the foundation of his tent, keeping it above the ooze and mud. He was whistling cheerfully and he smiled again, the grin bisecting his face from ear to ear. If he had anything on his mind besides Wompan--it was Wompan skin. Whatever Wompan skin looked like. "Aren't you forgetting something, sir?" Harry said. "I don't think so, boys. Am I?" Harry nodded. "Your daughter?" he said. Mr. Stevenson's jaw dropped a foot. "The girl!" he cried. "I almost forgot about her." He wasn't smiling now. "If her mother ever learned I took her to a place like this, with absolutely no civilized conveniences...." "But with Wompan," I said. He sighed. "Ginger!" he called. "You can come on out now, Ginger honey." Harry and I waited for Ginger to make her appearance. After a decent interval she came gracefully out of the hatch. She was young and red-haired and pretty. She was built the way a girl ought to be built and she had a million dollar smile. The smile was for Harry Conger. Right away she liked Harry. She was nice enough to me in a spoiled little rich girl way, but Harry, was, as they say, her cup of tea. She went walking off with him toward the stockade to get her first lesson in Venusian fauna while Mr. Stevenson and I pitched their tent. I was just as glad Ginger had decided Harry was for her, if either of us had to be. I had too much to think about. Such as Jason Woods Stevenson and Spaceman's magazine. Such as what a Wompan could or could not be expected to do when hunted. Such as our last chance to make good here on Venus. Let Harry have the lovelife, I'd try to keep Venus on the Half Shell solvent. * * * * * That night after supper Mr. Stevenson and Ginger turned in early in preparation for our first sally the next day. Harry gaped and gazed and wandered around the stockade, moonstruck. "Hey, snap out it," I said. "Lovely girl," he said. "Lovely old man in charge of the outdoor section of Spaceman's magazine," I said. "Got a smile could melt the night side of Pluto." "Wompan," I said. "Remember?" "You can handle it, Gil old boy." "I don't know if both of us, working together as hard as we ever worked in our lives, can handle it. But we have to try. We have to be on our toes, Harry. Are you with me?" "Did you see how Ginger's whole face lights up when she smiles?" "Harry," I pleaded. "We have a book inside. It isn't much, but it tells everything anybody knows about a Wompan. What they do. How they kill people. How to capture them, if they can be captured. Harry, we're no hunters. Since Wompan is the solar system's most dangerous game, wouldn't you say that puts us at a slight disadvantage? Wouldn't you, Harry old boy?" "She's really got a sense of humor too, Gil. For a rich kid, she's simple and unaffected and--" "Let's go inside and look at that Wompan book."