scene. Farmer finally succeeded in pointing,and Ray clumped slowly in a half-circle, just as the nonapus dropped tothe deck with a plank-shivering thump.
The scene assumed some of the aspects of a bad movie comedy. Thebackground was an out-of-focus blur, although Farmer was dimly consciousof motion in it somewhere--something else breaking the surface of thewater as it emerged. In the foreground, the boat and its occupants weresharply etched, but seemed to have gone into slow motion.
The nonapus crept forward ponderously, and Farmer searched dazedly for aweapon. It was Ray who first started stumbling in the direction of theboathook, but John Andrew, in a sudden fit of bravery, shoved past himand grabbed the fragile-looking thing from its cleats.
He swung to face the monster with a sick feeling in his stomach, and gotanother surprise. The thing had stopped moving. Straddling the railbehind it, and similarly dripping, was a--_migawd_!
It--he--looked almost like a man, but that only made the differenceworse. The details resolved as Farmer stared at him. The oddness abouthead and shoulders became finny crests; what had looked at first like ared skin-tight costume became a scaly hide. Farmer realized with a shockthat the creature wasn't wearing anything.
Farmer crouched. The point of the boathook wavered, aimed first at thenonapus, then at the fishman. To the editor, both were alien--but hecouldn't decide which one was more dangerous. For a long moment, neitherof them advanced, and he wondered if they could really be frightened ofhis puny weapon.
He doubted it. He was beginning to notice, among other things, that thenonapus was more fearsome than it had seemed at first--in addition tonine tentacles, claws, fangs and antenna became apparent. So did the bigglassy-red disks of the eyes--and Farmer aimed the point of the hook atone of them, started to thrust.
It was wrenched from his hands and forced downward to stick quivering inthe deck. The development took Farmer completely unawares. Neither ofthe aliens had moved; it was Judge Ray who had disarmed him.
* * * * *
Judge Ray was now frantically trying to remove his diving helmet again.Excitement made his motions ineffective, and he signaled for Farmer tohelp him, then continued to fumble with the fastenings himself. JohnAndrew turned, feeling completely doomed, to aid the man, and theystarted getting in each other's way and slowing down the operation evenmore.
They finally succeeded, though; the helmet swung back, and Ray promptlyshoved Farmer aside. Some of Farmer's fear gave way to amazement at thelittle inventor's audacity and what seemed to Farmer at least to befoolishly optimistic scientific detachment.
Ray said: "My name is Ray. It is indeed fortunate that you have met meimmediately upon your arrival here, since I am the world's greatestgenius, and thoroughly equipped to tell you anything you wish to knowabout my people and civilization. I take it you come from Atlantis?"
Amazingly, his tongue only got tangled once in the middle of thisspeech, and he regained control of it quickly then. John Andrew felt atouch of jealousy at the little man's capability in assuming control ofthe situation. That, and a sudden idea of his own, forced him to speakfor himself.
It was a sad attempt. "Venus.... Spaceship...." he managed to croak,before giving it up.
The launch rocked gently. The nonapus crouched motionless; the fishmanstood firmly, as if untouched by anything around him, his arms foldedand a faint smile upon his damp lips.
Finally he spoke too. What he said was: "Venus. Spaceship. My name isRay. It is indeed fortunate that you have met me immediately upon yourarrival here, since I am the world's greatest genius...."
He broke off. Apparently he interpreted the looks of consternation onthe faces of his audience correctly, for his smile became more friendlyand he continued in a casual tone.
"Excuse me," he said. "I didn't speak your language before I arrivedhere, and I had to learn it and become accustomed to its use throughanalyzing what you just said. I really didn't mean to puzzle you or makeyou feel inferior by mimicking you."
Farmer's mind worked chaotically. This was puzzling, he decided, and_did_ make him feel inferior--that is, it did if the man in the redscales had really picked up English so quickly. And if not, why lie?
* * * * *
The fishman came forward. His step was bouncy, as if he were used to ahigher gravity or greater pressure (_that_, Farmer complimented himselfon his cleverness, made sense at least), but he extended his hand andsaid "Put 'er there!" like any ladies' wear buyer at an annualconvention. Ray and Farmer shook with him in turn. His hand was damp andwebbed, but felt fairly human for all that.
"My name is Garf," he said cheerfully. John Andrew tried not to stare athim too noticeably, but Ray made no bones about it; apparently thefishman thought nothing at all of his state of nudity. Farmer shivered.
It was Ray who brought the conversation back to earth--or sea--again. Heasked Garf, directly, exactly where he did come from.
Garf looked hesitant, then waved the two to the rail with him. "Seethose?" he asked. They looked, and saw what seemed to be a flight ofsteps, carved from stone, old, and worn, starting abruptly just belowthe water level and leading downward. There was nothing on either sideof the steps, or underneath them as far as could be seen, but ordinaryocean. "I came up those," Garf said.
Farmer stared, and Ray stared. The stairway shouldn't be there--itcertainly hadn't been there before. Garf's explanations, it seemed, onlycompounded the confusion caused by his presence.
Farmer, muddled, looked again at the nonapus, which had apparently goneto sleep. Even so, it looked deadly.
Something bit him on the arm. He discovered Ray's fingers, in the divingglove, digging into his flesh in an amazingly powerful grip. Farmerhunched his shoulders, trying to break loose, and then he saw what Raywas staring at.
Garf had left them, and was strolling around the launch as if he hadjust bought it--looking down his nose at it; at the same time, acting asif he could afford not to give a damn how badly he'd been stung. But thestartling thing was that he had picked up the boathook and was twirlingit unconcernedly. He had not only picked it up, however--he had alsotied it in a knot.
It should have splintered in his hands, assuming he was strong enough tobend it at all. It hadn't; it was in perfect shape, except for the knot.Or so it seemed, at least, for even as Ray started forward withoutstretched hand, obviously hoping to examine the thing, Garf gave it afinal twirl and scaled it carelessly overboard.
John Andrew began to feel quick-frozen again. Being alone at sea in arickety craft with a possible madman had been bad enough. To have aweird creature with superhuman powers, and an impossible pet monster,added to the crew was a little too much.
* * * * *
Garf turned his attention to the television set, which was stillpresenting its hysterical vaudeville. "Great-uncle's gills!" heexclaimed, and lapsed into a fascinated silence. He studied theproceedings carefully, holding the arms-crossed pose again. Finally heturned to Ray.
"Weren't you saying something about civilization a while ago, finless?"he asked. His voice was sneering.
Ray frowned, and said something about mass-appeal. "Pay no attention to_that_," he continued. "Just listen to _me_. I'll tell you about ourcivilization, and our science, and...."
His voice broke off as if he had been struck in the face. In a way, hehad; Garf had deliberately turned his back on the old fellow. TheJudge's bloodshot little eyes darted about as if he wanted to pick upsomething heavy and hit Garf on the crest with it.
John Andrew's brain had finally resumed normal operations; he wasthinking slowly, but clearly. He examined the evidence with care. Hedecided that Garf's superior attitude and powers boded no good; that ifthe fishman once became slightly irritated he would sic the nonapus onRay and himself. (Probably, in fact, Garf would try to conquer the worldanyway; that was how it went in stories as corny as this situation.)Farmer further decided that Ray was too egocentrically eccentric to betruste
d to get them out of this fix; he decided he'd have to dosomething himself.
Having decided all this, Farmer went back over the territory to see ifhe could find any flaws in it--or any other way out. It still madesense, and he added a decision to get the boat back to shore as fast aspossible. He approached the engine.
As he did so, the engine melted into a solid, irregular lump of metal.John Andrew gulped, and put out a tentative hand toward the fused mess.It was not particularly warm--but it had melted.
Farmer looked at Garf again with fear and awe, and the fishman lookedback with cold amusement. But not for long. Garf turned to the Judge'sinvention--and started to show some genuine interest for the first timesince he had showed up.
He stood over the thing, webbed hands on scaly hips, peering at itintently. After a long silence, he knelt, and started feeling over themachine with