o be growing angry himself now under
the whiplashing woman's tongue. Finally he spoke, in English. He called
Dor a puddle-snake. That wasn't all of what he said, by any means; the
name was preceded by several adjectives and followed by an obscene
command. Dor blanched slightly.

"Oh, yes?" she said, her voice dripping danger. "I can speak this
language too, you know--I learned it years ago, before the gate to this
world was closed! And let me tell you something else...."

She told him something else. John Andrew blushed furiously again, and
covered his ears with his hands.

Little Ray was on his feet, trying to get a word in edgewise, but not
succeeding at all. He too started to get angry. Farmer hauled himself
upright, hoping to approach Ray, calm him, and get him to figure a way
out of this madhouse.

Garf yelled an expletive and gestured with his hand. A wave of pure heat
swept over the boat, blistering what paint it still boasted. The blow
had been directed at Dor, and she showed that she had absorbed most of
it by wilting visibly--but Farmer felt as much of it as he wanted. It
was as if a blast furnace had suddenly opened beside him; sweat popped
out on his brow and filmed his eyes. He wondered how uncomfortable he
could get.

A deadly silence descended.

* * * * *

John Andrew was wishing that he could swim when Dor smiled, and he began
to be interested in living again in spite of himself. The girl, he
thought, was somehow radiant--really lovely, in spite of her scales and
fins. It was peculiar; he'd never liked women at all, and had certainly
never thought he'd like a mermaid, but....

Anyway, he decided, he wasn't going to take sides if the two aliens were
going to fight it out. His first interest was in saving his own hide;
his second, in getting back to shore to give warning of the invasion. As
for Dor--John Andrew had lived this long without going to the aid of a
damsel in distress--without, in fact, ever seeing one that he could
remember, who wasn't obviously more capable of helping herself than he
was. He wasn't going to start rescuing fair maidens now--even if she
needed rescuing. Still, there was something awfully attractive.... Damn,
but he was confused!

Dor's smile didn't really last that long; Farmer's thoughts were going
fast now, somehow. He had finished those just described before Dor said,
"All right, Garf. Fun's fun; now let's kiss and make up. After all,