e
you don't mind my picking up your language, but it was the only one
around--"

"We are honored," Professor Bernardi declared. "And I am deeply grateful
to you, too, sir or madam, for saving my life."

"Think nothing of it," the vine said, arranging its leaves, which were
of a pleasing celadon rather than the whitish-green favored by the rest
of the local vegetation. "Now that I can move, I'll probably be doing
heroic things like that all the time. Are you all going to the city? May
I go with you? I've heard lots about the city," it went on, taking
consent for granted, "but I never thought I'd get to see it. Everybody
in the swamp is such an old stick-in-the-mud. I thought I was trapped,
too, forced to spend the rest of my life in a provincial environment. Is
it true that the streets are filled with chlorophyll? Do you think I can
get a job in a botanical garden or something? Perhaps I can give little
talks on horticulture to visitors?"

The mosquito-bat looked out of the tea kettle austerely. "Monster!" it
piped shrilly.

"The very idea!" the vine snapped back indignantly. "Oh, well," it said,
calming down, "you probably don't know any better. It's up to me as the
intelligent life-form to forgive you, and I shall."

Jrann-Pttt and Dfar-Lll looked at each other in consternation. _Do you
think there really are cities on this planet, sir? Can there be
indigenous intelligent life? If so, it may have already got in touch
with the commandant._

_Impossible_, Jrann-Pttt replied. _The vine probably just heard us
talking about a city. After all, it picked up the language that way;
very likely it absorbed some terrestrial concepts along with it. If
there are any real settlements at all, they must be quite
primitive--nothing more than villages. No, it's we who will build the
cities on Venus. Combining our technology with the terrestrials', we
could develop a pretty little civilization here--after we've disposed of
the commandant, so he can't report our disappearance. We don't want any
publicity. So much better to keep our little society exclusive._

* * * * *

"Wonder what time it is," the captain remarked as he rose and stretched
in the dim yellow light of the long Venusian day. "Must have slept for
hours. My watch seems to have stopped."

"Mine, too." Mortland unstrapped his from his wrist and shook it
futilely. "Waterproof, hah! If we ever get back to Earth, I shall make
the manufact