id in a
coarse rumble. "So difficult to control, you know. Terribly sorry...."
His voice trailed off as he lumbered down the aisle toward the empty
seat next to Pete.

The fat lady gasped, and an angry murmur ran up and down the cabin. "Sit
down," Pete said to the creature. "Relax. Cheerful reception these days,
eh?"

"You don't mind?" said the creature.

"Not at all." Pete tossed his briefcase on the floor. At a distance the
huge beast had looked like a nightmare combination of large alligator
and small tyrannosaurus. Now, at close range Pete could see that the
"scales" were actually tiny wrinkles of satiny green fur. He knew, of
course, that the Grdznth were mammals--"docile, peace-loving mammals,"
Tommy's PR-blasts had declared emphatically--but with one of them
sitting about a foot away Pete had to fight down a wave of horror and
revulsion.

The creature was most incredibly ugly. Great yellow pouches hung down
below flat reptilian eyes, and a double row of long curved teeth
glittered sharply. In spite of himself Pete gripped the seat as the
Grdznth breathed at him wetly through damp nostrils.

"Misgauged?" said Pete.

The Grdznth nodded sadly. "It's horrible of me, but I just can't help
it. I _always_ misgauge. Last time it was the chancel of St. John's
Cathedral. I nearly stampeded morning prayer--" He paused to catch his
breath. "What an effort. The energy barrier, you know. Frightfully hard
to make the jump." He broke off sharply, staring out the window. "Dear
me! Are we going _east_?"

"I'm afraid so, friend."

"Oh, dear. I wanted _Florida_."

"Well, you seem to have drifted through into the wrong airplane," said
Pete. "Why Florida?"

The Grdznth looked at him reproachfully. "The Wives, of course. The
climate is so much better, and they mustn't be disturbed, you know."

"Of course," said Pete. "In their condition. I'd forgotten."

"And I'm told that things have been somewhat unpleasant in the East just
now," said the Grdznth.

Pete thought of Tommy, red-faced and frantic, beating off hordes of
indignant citizens. "So I hear," he said. "How many more of you are
coming through?"

"Oh, not many, not many at all. Only the Wives--half a million or
so--and their spouses, of course." The creature clicked his talons
nervously. "We haven't much more time, you know. Only a few more weeks,
a few months at the most. If we couldn't have stopped over here, I just
don't know _what_ we'd have done."

"Thin