ked it up?"

[Illustration: _It was an arm to be proud of--but what good was it?_]

"Its nervous system and reflexes are evidently as slow as its motor
muscles," Remm replied. "There has not been time for the sensation of my
picking it up to reach the brain, and for the brain to send back its
message to the legs to stop their running motion."

"How heavy is it?" Macker asked.

"Only a few ounces," Remm replied. "But that's logical considering that
this is a 'light' planet. If we took it back to our own 'heavy' world,
gravity would crush it to a light film of the liquid which comprises the
greater part of its substance."

Remm set the creature down on the box in its former queerly contorted
position. Toolls had left his instruments and strolled over beside them
to observe the native.

"One of its appendages seems bent at a peculiar angle," Macker said.

"I noticed that," Remm answered. "I think that I may have broken the
bone in several places when I first captured it. I was not aware then of
how fragile it was. But now that you mention it, I should be able to use
that injury to give you a good illustration of the interplay of
emotional expressions on its face. Observe now as I touch it."

Remm reached over and touched--very lightly--the broken portion of the
native's appendage. The muscles of the creature's face pulled its
flaccid flesh into distorted positions, bunching some and stretching
others. "It is very probably registering pain," Remm said.

Suddenly the starch seemed to leave the native's body and it slowly
slumped across the packing-box.

"Why is it doing that, Toolls?" Remm asked.

Toolls concentrated for a minute, absorbing the feelings and thought
pulsations emanating from the creature. "The conscious plane of its mind
has blanked out," he said. "I presume the pain you caused by touching
its wounded member resulted in a breakdown of its nervous system. The
only thought waves I receive now are disjointed impressions and pictures
following no rational series. However, I'm certain that it will be only
temporary."

"Don't you think that in justice to the creature we should repair its
wound before we free it?" Macker asked.

"I had intended to have it done," Remm replied. "You shouldn't have any
trouble fixing it, should you, Toolls?"

"No," Toolls answered. "I may as well attend to it right now." He rolled
the portable _converter_ over beside the creature and carefully laid its
arm in the "pan.