I can control my glands!" Mrs. Bernardi flared back.
_Sex-starved spinster._

"I shall make some tea, ladies," Jrann-Pttt interposed. "I'm sure we
will all feel the better for it."

Mrs. Bernardi smiled at him feebly. "You're such a comfort, Pitt. I
don't know why you of all creatures should be the one to remind me of
home."

"Home," remarked Mortland, emerging from the airlock, "is where the
heart is. Did I hear someone say 'tea'?"

* * * * *

As Jrann-Pttt hung the kettle over the fire, suddenly the air erupted in
stunning violence of sound. The ground undulated under their feet and
water slopped out of the kettle, almost putting out the fire that rose
high to claw at it. Rivulets of thick, muddy liquid welled out of the
ground and drabbled their feet. The women turned pale. Algol gave a
faint cry and hid under Mrs. Bernardi's skirts, trembling, while the
mosquito-bat tried to lift Mortland's toupee and hide in his hair. The
ship itself quivered and seemed to jump slightly in the air, then
returned to its resting place.

All was quiet again, quieter than it had been before. Mortland anxiously
gnawed his light mustache. "Better hurry with that tea, there's a good
fellow. I'm violently allergic to loud noises."

"They'll probably continue all day," the professor said with almost
malevolent cheerfulness, "so you might as well get used to them." _Who
is he to have nerves? I am easily the most sensitive person here, but I
manage to control myself._

"I don't know how I'm going to stand it!" Mrs. Bernardi shrieked. "I
just know something terrible is going to happen."

"Please try to restrain yourself, Louisa," her husband ordered. "After
it's over, you'll find we'll be much more comfortable and secure with
the ship resting on rock."

"If you ask me, that blast made it sink a little," Mortland said. "I
wonder whether--"

He was interrupted by a thrashing in the bushes. Dfar-Lll burst forth,
shedding scales. _Do not despair, Jrann-Pttt. I am here, ready to save
you or die at your side._

The women clutched each other, Miss Anspacher praying silently and
fervently to Juno, Lakshmi, Freya, Isis and a host of other esoteric
female deities she had picked up in the course of her avocational
researches.

"He seems to be one of Jrann-Pttt's people," Bernardi observed, "so
there should be nothing to fear."

_Dfar-Lll, you fool!_ Jrann-Pttt ideated angrily. _Nothing's wrong.
They're j