off Oasis, and then my friend joined me.
His adjustments had failed. The cursed machine had relegated us both."

"God bless Atlantis," murmured Circe.

"I presume you are taking the bottles and the great vat of lead back to
Earth?" it queried slyly.

"Not on your life," said Daley. "As soon as we're out of System Ninety,
we'll drop 'em into the void. Your damn tribe will be marooned properly
this time."

"But they are alive in those prisons!" it shouted, its eyes momentarily
reddening again. "Such compression is most irksome to them, and they
must constantly shift about to keep clear of the lead in the stoppers.
It's inhuman!"

"You're right," said Pink grimly. "It's djinnlike."

"How did you learn English?" asked Jerry suddenly. "Modern English, I
mean."

"You forget; when you brought me aboard, in the guise of a Martian, you
handed me a lingoalter. It was simple to speak the English of the 17th
century into it and listen as modern speech came out."

"That's another thing. That Martian suit--how'd you get it?"

"They had come this far. We found the suit, with its occupant long
turned to dust. We kept it for such emergencies. When the space ships
foundered nearby a few years ago, we refrained from molesting this
woman, thinking that she might some day be a fine decoy."

"You watched me in the suit," said Circe.

"We did. We had not seen a human in a long time." The djinni paused,
then said, "The Martians had space travel when Earthmen were barbarians.
They came to Terra, and we, sensing danger in them, drove them out. We
saw to it that the Martians would tell tales of the horrors of Earth
life, and never come back."

"By God," said Pink, "that's why they never colonized Earth, though
they had spaceships! It's one of the biggest problems we've known."

"Then I've solved it for you. Will you do me a favor in return?"

"What?"

"Have you any lead left?"

"A little."

"Then lay it on my chest, and give me a quick death."

"Get it," Pink said to Daley. The lieutenant started a protest. Pink
said, "My Lord, can't we afford to be merciful now? After all that
slaughter?" And Daley went to find the lead.

Circe said, "Why do you want to go to Earth so badly? What's there that
you want? You're such an independent form of life...."

"Atmosphere," said the djinni.

"But you don't breathe!"

"We do, however, talk; and we cannot hear each other in a vacuum. We
wanted to find Earth again and know the pleas