' head. His gun went off. The
bullet missed Cochrane by fractions of an inch. He plunged ahead.

Some indefinite time later, Babs was pulling desperately at him. He had
Johnny Simms on the floor and was throttling him. Johnny Simms strangled
and tore at his fingers.

Sanity came back to Cochrane with the effect of something snapping. He
got up. He nodded to Babs and she picked up the gun Johnny Simms had
used.

"I think," said Cochrane, breathing hard, "that you're a good sample of
everything I dislike. The worst thing you do is make me act like you! If
you touch a gun again on this ship, I'll probably kill you. If you get
arrogant again, I will beat the living daylights out of you! Get up!"

Johnny Simms got up. He looked thoroughly scared. Then, amazingly, he
beamed at Cochrane. He said amiably:

"I forgot. I'm that way. Alicia'll tell you. I don't blame you for
getting mad. I'm sorry. But I'm that way!"

He brushed himself off, beaming at Alicia and Jamison and Babs and
Cochrane. Cochrane ground his teeth. He went to the airlock and looked
down outside.

Holden was bent over the creature Johnny Simms had killed. He
straightened up and came back toward the ship. He went faster when the
ground grew hot under his feet. He fairly leaped into the landing-sling
and started it up.

"Not human," he reported to Cochrane when he slipped from the sling in
the airlock. "There's no question about it when you are close. It's more
nearly a bird than anything else. It was warm-blooded. It has a beak.
There are penguins on Earth that have been mistaken for men.

"I did a show once," said Cochrane coldly, "that had clips of old films
of cockfighting in it. There was a kind of gamecock called Cornish Game
that was fairly manshaped. If it had been big enough--Pull in the sling
and close the lock. We're moving."

He turned away. Babs stood by Alicia, offering a handkerchief for Alicia
to put to her cheek. Jamison listened unhappily as Johnny Simms
explained brightly that he had always been that way. When he got excited
he didn't realize what he was doing. He said almost with pride that he
hadn't ever been any other way than that. He didn't really mean to kill
anybody, but when he got excited--.

"What happened?" demanded Holden.

"Our little psychopath," said Cochrane in a grating voice, "put on an
act. He threatened me with a rifle. He hit Alicia first. Jamison, trace
that bullet-hole. See if it got through to the skin of