and
some odd implements held in loops.

Roughly the figure was more humanoid than the Throgs. The upper limbs
were not too unlike Shann's arms, though the hands had four digits of
equal length instead of five. But the features were nonhuman, closer to
saurian in contour. It had large eyes, blazing yellow in the dazzle of
the flash, with vertical slits of green for pupils. A nose united with
the jaw to make a snout, and above the domed forehead a sharp V-point of
raised spiky growth extended back and down until behind the shoulder
blades it widened and expanded to resemble a pair of wings.

The captive no longer struggled, but sat quietly in the tangle of the
snare Shann had set, watching the Terran steadily as if there were no
difficulty in seeing through the brilliance of the beam to the man who
held it. And, oddly enough, Shann experienced no repulsion toward its
reptilian appearance as he had upon first sighting the beetle-Throg. On
impulse he put down his torch on a rock and walked into the light to
face squarely the thing out of the sea.

Still eying Shann, the captive raised one limb and gave an absent-minded
tug to the belt it wore. Shann, noting that gesture, was struck by a
wild surmise, leading him to study the prisoner more narrowly. Allowing
for the alien structure of bone, the nonhuman skin; this creature was
delicate, graceful, in its way beautiful, with a fragility of limb which
backed up his suspicions. Moved by no pressure from the other, but by
his own will and sense of fitness, Shann stooped to cut the control line
of his snare.

The captive continued to watch as Shann sheathed his blade and then
held out his hand. Yellow eyes, never blinking since his initial
appearance, regarded him, not with any trace of fear or dismay, but with
a calm measurement which was curiosity based upon a strong belief in its
own superiority. He did not know how he knew, but Shann was certain that
the creature out of the sea was still entirely confident, that it made
no fight because it did not conceive of any possible danger from him.
And again, oddly enough, he was not irritated by this unconscious
arrogance; rather he was intrigued and amused.

"Friends?" Shann used the basic galactic speech devised by Survey and
the Free Traders, semantics which depended upon the proper inflection of
voice and tone to project meaning when the words were foreign.

The other made no sound, and the Terran began to wonder if his capt