turned over twice and pitched
Oliver out, stunned for the second time that day, into the greenish
glow shed by the saucer-ship's lights.

* * * * *

He struggled back to awareness to find his head pillowed on something
soft and wonderfully comfortable. A circle of startled faces, most of
them dark facsimiles of the putteed Bivins', stared uncertainly down
at him. In the near foreground stood Mr. Furnay, wringing his hands
and muttering grittily to himself in his own dissonant tongue. Mr.
Furnay, seen now for the first time without his too-large Panama,
exhibited instead of hair a crest of downy blue feathers and pronged
antennae that vibrated softly in the evening breeze.

"Where is she?" Oliver demanded. He scrambled dizzily to his feet, and
the circle of faces melted backward hastily. "What have you done with
Pearl, you monsters?"

Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above, on whose lap Oliver's head had been
pillowed, stood up to move between Oliver and the patently
apprehensive Mr. Furnay. She wore a light maroon cape over her sunsuit
against the mild chill of evening, and could not possibly have looked
less like a damsel in distress. She seemed, as a matter of fact, quite
happy.

"I hoped you would come to see me again before blastoff," she said.
Her voice skipped, tinkling with pleasure, from octave to octave. "But
so suddenly--so dashing, so impetuous!"

"You're going away _willingly_?" Oliver said dumbly. "Then they're not
forcing--you're not a prisoner after all?"

Her laugh was an arpeggiando blending of surprise and amusement. "A
prisoner of these _Tsammai_? No. I am a performer in their company,
hired by Xtll--Mr. Furnay--to train and exhibit animals native to my
own world."

"But I heard Furnay threaten you in the menagerie building this
afternoon! His tone--"

"The _Tsammai_ tongue sounds dreadful because it is all consonants and
not based on pitch and nuance as mine is," she said. "But the
_Tsammai_ themselves are only tradesmen, and are very gentle.
Xtll--Mr. Furnay--only feared that I might say too much to you then,
when it was important that the natives should not suspect our
identity."

"It is true," Mr. Furnay nodded, sounding relieved. "We must avoid
notice on such worlds as yours, which are too backward to appreciate
the marvels of our show. We stop here only to scout for new and novel
exhibits."

"Show!" Oliver echoed, "You mean all this is--is--"

"What else