Greenfield was not quite the man he
would have chosen to be his associate for months on end. Still,
beggars--as Miss Anspacher might have eloquently put it--could not be
choosers. "What makes you say that?" he asked, trying to set an example
of tolerance.

"Don't like the idea of him cooking for us," the captain said
stubbornly. "Might poison us all in our beds."

"Well, don't eat in your bed," suggested Mortland, strolling out of the
airlock in the company of the cat. Algol, however, finding that the spot
beside the captain's camp stool was as dry as anything could be on
Venus, decided to turn back.

* * * * *

"The difficulty is easily overcome, Captain," the professor said, still
holding on to his patience. "You can continue to cook your own meals
from the tinned and packaged foods on board ship. The rest of us will
eat fresh native foods prepared by Jrann-Pttt."

"But why," Miss Anspacher interrupted as she emerged from the airlock
with a large cast-iron skillet, "should you think Jrann-Pttt wants to
poison us?"

Both men rose from their stools. "Stands to reason he'd consider us his
enemies, Miss Anspacher," the captain said. "After all, we--as a group,
that is--captured him."

"Hired him," Professor Bernardi contradicted. "I've telepathically
arranged to pay him an adequate salary. In goods, of course; I don't
suppose our money would be of much use to him. And I think he's rather
glad of the chance to hang around and observe us conveniently."

"Observe us!" Greenfield exclaimed. "You mean he's spying out the land
for an attack? Let's prepare our defenses at once!"

"I doubt if that's what he has in mind," Professor Bernardi said
judiciously.

"He may be staying because he wants to be near me," Miss Anspacher
blurted. Overcome by this unmaidenly admission, she reddened and rushed
from them, calling, "Yoo-hoo, Jrann-Pttt! Here is the frying pan!" Algol
woke up instantly and followed her. "Frying" was one of the more
important words in his vocabulary.

Captain Greenfield stared across the clearing after them, then turned
back to Bernardi with a frown. "I don't like to see one of our girls
mixed up with a lizard--and a foreign lizard at that." But his face too
clearly betrayed a personal resentment.

"Don't tell me you have a--a fondness for Miss Anspacher, Captain,"
Professor Bernardi exclaimed, genuinely surprised. Undeniably Miss
Anspacher--although no longer in her fi