nt swiftly.

Nicko made a half dozen more trips and returned from the last one with
several scales knocked off his back. "Somebody threw a brick at me,"
he said.

Mike scanned the now-menacing jungle wall. "A brick?"

"That was what it felt like. It hurt like hell."

"You didn't see anybody?"

"I did not. I didn't wait long enough."

"We've got to get out of here."

"An observation of amazing erudition."

Mike lashed a long flat piece of driftwood to the raft as a steering
oar, found two other such pieces to serve as unattached oars, and
helped Nicko finish with loading the supplies. "All right," he said.
"Let's go."

They cast loose and while Doree worked with the stern oar, Mike and
Nicko paddled feverishly toward the middle of the river. With this
objective achieved, Nicko took over the stern. Mike forced Doree to
lie down. He put a pillow under her head, kissed her and sat beside
her until her eyes closed. Then he went back and sat down beside
Nicko.

The latter had not forgotten his terrifying grin. "We certainly get
around, don't we?" he said cheerfully.

"I'm glad it makes you so happy."

"As a matter of fact I'm scared stiff. It is just that my sainted
mother told me always to keep a brave front."

* * * * *

Mike looked at his assistant with sudden fondness. "Who was your
mother, Nicko?"

Nicko shook his dragon's head sadly. "I can't seem to remember but I
know I had one. And of course she was saintly."

"And your father?"

A distant sound intruded, touching Mike's ears lightly. His eyes were
still upon Nicko as the latter said, "You've got me--but I have a
feeling he was a gallant knight in armor who swept my beautiful mother
off her fairy-like feet."

"No doubt," Mike smiled. The sound was louder now, but it still did
not catch his attention. He was remembering that encounter in the
polar forests of Mars; the day he found little Nicko crouching under a
bush; how he'd come within an ace of putting a bullet into the hideous
creature's brain. But some vagrant touch of compassion had stayed him.
The little monster seemed so lost, so pathetic, so helpless. He'd
taken Nicko back to camp, the Martian infant's parentage and ancestry
a mystery Mike felt would never be solved.

What sort of hideous mating had occurred, he wondered, to produce this
mongrel creature with the brain of a human and the body of a beast?
Mike held forth his hand. "You were a vicious li