d the wildest sort of shenanigans!"

"Vot iss shenanigans?" inquired Putz.

"He says, 'Je ne sais quoi,'" explained Leroy. "It is to say, 'I don't
know what.'"

"That's right," agreed Jarvis. "I didn't know what, so I sneaked over to
find out. There was a racket like a flock of crows eating a bunch of
canaries--whistles, cackles, caws, trills, and what have you. I rounded
a clump of stumps, and there was Tweel!"

"Tweel?" said Harrison, and "Tveel?" said Leroy and Putz.

"That freak ostrich," explained the narrator. "At least, Tweel is as
near as I can pronounce it without sputtering. He called it something
like 'Trrrweerrlll.'"

"What was he doing?" asked the Captain.

"He was being eaten! And squealing, of course, as any one would."

"Eaten! By what?"

"I found out later. All I could see then was a bunch of black ropy arms
tangled around what looked like, as Putz described it to you, an
ostrich. I wasn't going to interfere, naturally; if both creatures were
dangerous, I'd have one less to worry about.

"But the bird-like thing was putting up a good battle, dealing vicious
blows with an eighteen-inch beak, between screeches. And besides, I
caught a glimpse or two of what was on the end of those arms!" Jarvis
shuddered. "But the clincher was when I noticed a little black bag or
case hung about the neck of the bird-thing! It was intelligent! That or
tame, I assumed. Anyway, it clinched my decision. I pulled out my
automatic and fired into what I could see of its antagonist.

"There was a flurry of tentacles and a spurt of black corruption, and
then the thing, with a disgusting sucking noise, pulled itself and its
arms into a hole in the ground. The other let out a series of clacks,
staggered around on legs about as thick as golf sticks, and turned
suddenly to face me. I held my weapon ready, and the two of us stared at
each other.

"The Martian wasn't a bird, really. It wasn't even bird-like, except
just at first glance. It had a beak all right, and a few feathery
appendages, but the beak wasn't really a beak. It was somewhat flexible;
I could see the tip bend slowly from side to side; it was almost like a
cross between a beak and a trunk. It had four-toed feet, and four
fingered things--hands, you'd have to call them, and a little roundish
body, and a long neck ending in a tiny head--and that beak. It stood an
inch or so taller than I, and--well, Putz saw it!"

The engineer nodded. "_Ja!_ I saw!"

Jarv