presence_, Miss Anspacher thought,_and a sort of uncouth grace. Moreover, he cannot read my mind--in fact,he often cannot even understand me when I speak._
"All right!" he bellowed. "Cast off!"
The vine unfastened the rope that it had insouciantly attached to a treetrunk, remarking to the others, "Don't let the trees intimidate you.Actually their bark is worse than their bite." Now it dropped lithely onboard the raft, looking for a comfortable resting place.
"Please don't twine around me," Miss Anspacher said coldly. "If youinsist upon coming with us, you will have to choose an inanimate objectto cling to."
"All right, all right," it tried to soothe her. "No need to get yourselfall worked up over such a mere triviality, is there? I'll just coilmyself tidily around one of those spare logs. I must say you're warmer,though."
_Yes, she is, isn't she?_ thought the captain, and squeezed her hand.
* * * * *
The raft drifted down the river. Since the current was flowing in thedesired direction, there did not appear to be any need to use the poles,and everyone sat or reclined as comfortably as possible in thesuffocating heat. The yellow haze had become so thick that they seemedto be at the bottom of a custard cup.
"I do hope we're heading the right way," Professor Bernardi said,_although who knows what is right and what is wrong any more_?
"Perhaps we aren't," Mrs. Bernardi mused, stroking Algol, who hadcrawled into her lap. "Perhaps we will go drifting along endlessly.Every sixteen days, it will get dark and every sixteen days it will getlight, and meanwhile we will continue floating along, never goinganywhere, never getting anywhere, never seeing anything but haze andraft and river and each other." Algol wheezed in his sleep.
"Nonsense!" Jrann-Pttt said rudely. "I have a compass. I know thedirection perfectly well."
"And yet you let us think we were wandering about blindly." MissAnspacher gave him a contemptuous look. The captain pressed her hand.
"Since you seem to breathe the same air and eat much the same food thatwe do, Mr. Pitt," Mrs. Bernardi changed her tack, "I suppose we'll bephysically comfortable on your planet for the rest of our lives. Ourchildren will be born there and our children's children, and eventuallythey'll forget all about Earth and think it was only a legend."
"But you did expect to settle permanently on Venus, didn't you?" thevine asked, bewilderedly. "Or for a long visit, anyway. So I don'treally see that it makes much difference if you go to Jrann-Pttt's AlphaCentauri place. So much nicer to be living with friends, I shouldthink."
"But Alpha Centauri is so very far away," Mrs. Bernardi sighed. "Therewouldn't be much chance of our ever getting back."
"Look!" Mortland exclaimed. "The river's branching. Which fork do wetake?"
* * * * *
Jrann-Pttt, who had been dabbling his arms idly in the translucentviolet-blue water, withdrew them hastily as nine green eyes, obviouslybelonging to the same individual, rose to the surface and regarded himwith more than casual interest. He consulted his compass. "Left."
"Contrarily!" the mosquito-bat suddenly squeaked, pointing a small rodat his companions. "Rightward."
There was a stunned silence.
"Monster!" Mortland cried in reproach. "You can talk! How could youdeceive us like that?"
"Can talk," the creature retorted. "Me not intelligent life-form, ha!Who talks last talks best. Have not linguistic facility of inferiorlife-forms, but can communicate rudely in your language."
"Remember," Mortland cautioned, "there are ladies present."
"Have been lying low and laughing to self--ha, ha!--at witlessness oflowerly life-forms."
"But why?" Mrs. Bernardi demanded distractedly. "Haven't we been kind toyou?"
"You be likewise well treated in our zoo," it assured her. "All of you.Our zoo finest in Galaxy. And clean, too."
"Now really, sir, I must protest--" Professor Bernardi began, trying toextricate a blaster unobtrusively from the pile of gear in which thetoo-confident terrestrials had cached their weapons.
Monster gestured with his rod. "This is lethal weapon. Do not tryhindrancing me. Hate damage fine specimens. Captain, go rightward."
"Oh, is that so!" Greenfield retorted hotly. "Let me tell you, you--youinsect!"
"George!" Miss Anspacher clutched his arm. "Do what it says. For mysake, George!"
"Oh, all right," he muttered. "Just for you, then. Told you not to trustany of 'em," he went on, reluctantly poling the raft in the ordereddirection. "Foreigners!"
"Fine zoo," the mosquito-bat insisted. "Very clean. Run with utmostefficientness. Strict visiting hours."
* * * * *
"And there goes Plan D," the vine said lightly. There was a hint oflaughter in its voice. Jrann-Pttt stared at it in consternation. "Areyou also from the Alpha Centauri system, sir?" It turned its attentionto the mosquito-bat. "Naturally I'm curious to know where I'm going," itexplained, "since I seem definitely to be included in your graciousinvitation."
"Alpha Centauri, hah!" the mosquito-bat snorted. "I from what Earthletslaughingly term Sirius. Alpha Centauri merely little star."
"Now see here!" Jrann-Pttt sprang to his feet. Criminal he might be, buthe was not going to sit there and have his sun insulted!
"Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" Miss Anspacher cried. "No use getting yourselfkilled, Jrann-Pttt!"
"Correctly," Monster approved. "Elementary intelligence displayed. Whydamage fine specimens?"
_From one prison into another_, the saurian mentalized bitterly.
_Yes_, returned Dfar-Lll, _and it's all your fault._ The junior lizardburst into tears. _I wish I had let Merglyt-Ruuu do what he wanted. Iwould have been better off._
"Sirius," the vine repeated. "That's even farther away than AlphaCentauri, isn't it? I never thought I would get that far away from theswamp! This really will be an adventure!"
"How do you know--" Professor Bernardi began.
"Frankly," it went on, "I don't see why you chaps are so put out by thewhole thing. What's the difference between Alpha Centauri and Siriusanyway? Matter of a few light-years, but otherwise a star's a star forall that."
"To Jrann-Pttt, we wouldn't have been specimens," Mrs. Bernardi said,belatedly recognizing the advantages of Alpha Centauri.
"No, not specimens," the vine told her easily. "I don't suppose you knowhe had no intention of taking you back to his system. He wanted you tohelp him kill the officers of his ship so they couldn't look for him andthe other escaped prisoner or report back to his planet. Then he wasgoing to put the ship out of commission and found his own colony herewith you as his slaves. I'd just as soon be a specimen as a slave.Sooner. Better to reign in a zoo than serve in a swamp!"
"Just how do you know all this?" Miss Anspacher demanded.
"It's obvious enough," Bernardi said gloomily. "Another telepath." _Howcan we compete or even cope with creatures like these? What a fool Iwas to think I could outwit them._
"Telepathy just tricksomeness," the mosquito-bat put in jealously. "Ihave no telepathy, yet superior to all."
"But why should Mr. Pitt want to kill his officers?" Mrs. Bernardi askedquerulously. "He's the commandant, isn't he? Or is he a professor? Inever got that straight."
"He was one of the criminals on the ship," the vine told her. "What youmight call a confidence man. This is about the only system in the Galaxywhere he isn't wanted. He did tell you the truth, though, when he saidthey were sent on an expedition to collect zoological specimens.Dangerous work," it sighed, "and so his people use criminals for it.They were sent out in small detachments. Our friend here killed hisguard in a fight over a female prisoner, which was why--"
"But what happened to the female prisoner?" Miss Anspacher's eye caughtDfar-Lll's. "Oh, no!" she gasped.
"Why not?" Dfar-Lll demanded. "I'm as much of a female as you are. Maybeeven more."
The captain leaned close to Miss Anspacher. "No one can be more femininetha
n you are, Dolores," he whispered.
"But he--she's so young!" Mrs. Bernardi wailed.
The vine made an amused sound. "Don't you have juvenile delinquents onEarth?"
"Oh, what does all that matter now?" Jrann-Pttt said sullenly.