routine, bright spots in a lonely and wandering
existence. The calls that came in represented few real problems. The
ship stopped at one contract planet to organize a mass inoculation
program against a parasitic infestation resembling malaria. They paused
at another place to teach the native doctors the use of some new
surgical instruments that had been developed in Hospital Earth
laboratories just for them. Frantic emergency calls usually proved to
involve trivial problems, but once or twice potentially serious
situations were spotted early, before they could develop into real
trouble.

And as the three doctors got used to the responsibilities of a patrol
ship's rounds, and grew more confident of their ability to handle the
problems thrust upon them, they found themselves working more and more
efficiently as a team.

This was the way the General Practice Patrol was supposed to function.
Each doctor had unsuspected skills that came to light. There was no
questioning Jack Alvarez's skill as a diagnostician, but it seemed
uncanny to Dal the way the slender, dark-haired Earthman could listen
carefully to a medical problem of an alien race on a remote planet, and
then seem to know exactly which questions to ask to draw out the
significant information about the situation. Tiger was not nearly as
quick and clever as Jack; he needed more time to ponder a question of
medical treatment, and he would often spend long hours poring over the
data tapes before deciding what to do in a given case--but he always
seemed to come up with an answer, and his answers usually worked. Above
all, Tiger's relations with the odd life-forms they encountered were
invariably good; the creatures seemed to like him, and would follow his
instructions faithfully.

Dal, too, had opportunities to demonstrate that his surgical skill and
judgment was not universally faulty in spite of the trouble on Morua
VIII. More than once he succeeded in almost impossible surgical cases
where there was no time to call for help, and little by little he could
sense Jack's growing confidence in his abilities, grudging though it
might be.

Dal had ample time to mull over the thing that had happened on Morua
VIII and to think about the interview with Black Doctor Tanner
afterward. He knew he was glad that Tiger had intervened even on the
basis of a falsehood; until Tiger had spoken up Dal had been certain
that the Black Doctor fully intended to use the incident as an e