I keep telling him!" Mrs. Bernardi exclaimed.

But her husband shook his head. "The law is inflexible. We have broken
it and must be punished, even if by breaking it we proved its
fundamental error." _Why let him know our plans?_

_Why, Jrann-Pttt, that sounds just like our own government, doesn't it?_

_Yes, it does. We should be able to establish a very satisfactory mode
of living with these strangers._

"We'd hoped that after a year or so the whole thing would die down,"
Mortland explained frankly, "and we'd go back as heroes."

"Do you know the way to your home, Jrann-Pttt?" the professor asked
anxiously.

"Since we were able to catch a glimpse of the sun, I think I can figure
out roughly where we are. All we must do is walk some two hundred
kilometers in that direction--" he waved an arm to indicate the
way--"and we should be at the capital."

"Will your people accept us as refugees?" Miss Anspacher demanded
bluntly, "or will we be captives?" _Which is what I'll bet the good
professor is planning for you, if only he can figure some way to get you
and, of course, ourselves back._

"We should be proud to accept you as citizens and to receive the
benefits of your splendid technology. Our laboratories will be placed at
your disposal."

"Well, that's better than we hoped for," the professor said,
brightening. "We had expected to have to carve our own laboratories out
of the wilderness. Now we shall be able to carry on our researches in
comfort." _No need to trouble the natives; we'll be able to raise the
ship ourselves. Or build a new one. And I'll see to it personally that
they have special quarters in the zoo with a considerable amount of
privacy._

"If I were you, I wouldn't trust him too far," the captain warned. "He's
a foreigner."

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Captain!" Miss Anspacher said.
"I, for one, trust Jrann-Pttt implicitly. Did you say this direction,
Jrann-Pttt?" She stepped forward briskly. There was a loud splash and
water closed over her head.

Captain Greenfield rushed forward to haul her out. "Well," she said,
daintily coughing up mud, "I was wet to begin with, anyway."

"You're a brave little woman, Miss Anspacher," the captain told her
admiringly.

"This sort of thing may present a problem," Professor Bernardi
commented. "I hope that was only a pot-hole, that the water is not going
to be consistently too deep for wading."

"There might be quicksand, too," Mrs. Bernardi