ne to follow him
out the door. Someone locked it after them.

* * * * *

Alternately tossing on the cot and pacing the floor, Chet seethed for
hours. His first interview with the new C.O., and two bawlings-out in
five minutes! Because of Pine--Pine, who kept him confined in this room,
seeing no one but the attendants, having his meals alone....

When a day passed, and then two, and he felt his strength returning,
Chet was sure that Dr. Pine kept him out of the wardroom and away from
the other officers only as punishment. Three years a prisoner--and a
prisoner still! By the time Commander Seymour came to see him again,
Chet had spent hours plotting revenge.

"Barfield," the commander said, "Dr. Pine is going--alone--to the
village you escaped from. He'll pretend he's you, or someone like
you--whichever he can get away with. So here's your chance for a little
fresh air--you can guide us to the village."

"Does that mean I go on active duty, sir?"

"Not quite. Dr. Pine hasn't released you from sickbay."

Pine again! Pine found him good enough to imitate, it seemed, but not
good enough to put on duty.

Suddenly Chet saw the possibilities. So Pine was going to impersonate
him? Then Pine would be taken for an escaped sacrifice, a prisoner who'd
killed a witch-doctor!

Tell him? Huh. Let him find out the hard way! Then even he, yellow as he
was, would want revenge on the Agvars. If he survived their welcome....

"I'll be _glad_ to go, sir," Chet said.

* * * * *

They brought him fatigues, not a dress uniform. But fatigues and
shoes--even tight ones--were clothing, at least. And clothing would
change his appearance. The Agvars had never seen him dressed, nor, since
his first days, with a haircut and shave. Whether Pine's impersonation
worked or not, Chet saw no danger for himself in approaching the
village. But he wondered how it was to be managed.

He was told the plan when Commander Seymour and Dr. Pine met him outside
by the ship's tail. The commander, who was armed, and the doctor,
already naked except for a pair of slippers and a sunlamp tan, would go
with him by the shortest route direct to the village. But only Dr. Pine
would enter it.

Commander Seymour explained Chet's part--and his own. "Barfield," he
said, "I want you to find and point out some kind of game animal they
use for food. I count on killing something after we come under the
Ag