Collector's Item, Page 3

through the jungle--now walking, now wading wherethe mud became water. Small creatures with hardly any thoughts scurriedbefore them as they went.

  _The commandant may have already made contact with their rulers_,Dfar-Lll suggested, springing forward to illuminate the way. _In thatcase, we couldn't hope to remain undiscovered for long._

  _Oh, these creatures are not Venusians. There's no intelligent lifehere. They hail from the third planet of this system and, according totheir thoughts, this is the only vessel that was capable of traversinginterplanetary space. So we needn't worry about extradition treaties orany other official annoyances._

  _If they're friendly, why didn't you spend the night in their ship? Itcertainly looks more comfortable than our collapsible moslak--which, bythe way, collapsed while you were gone. I hope we'll be able to put itup again ourselves. I must say this for the lieutenant--he was good atthat sort of thing._

  Jrann-Pttt made a gesture of distaste. _He was unfortunately good atother things, too. But let's not discuss him. I'm not staying with thestrangers because I want to pick up one or two little things--mostlysome of our food to serve them. I used up all the supplies in my packand I want them to think we're living off the land. They believe me tobe a primitive and it's best that they should until I decide just howI'm going to make most efficient use of them. Besides, I didn't want toleave you alone._

  The younger saurian sniffed skeptically.

  * * * * *

  "Honestly, Pitt," Mrs. Bernardi said, keeping to leeward of thetablecloth the lizard-man was efficiently shaking out of the airlock,"I've never had a--an employee as competent as you." But the word shehad in mind, of course, was "servant." "I do wish you'd come back toEarth with us."

  "Perhaps you would compel me to come?" he suggested, as Algol and themosquito-bat entered into hot competition to catch the crumbs beforethey sank into the purple ooze.

  "Oh, no! We'd want you to come as our guest--our friend." _Naturally_,her thoughts ran, _a house guest would be expected to help with thewashing up and lend a hand with the cooking--and, of course, we wouldn'thave to pay him. Though my husband, I suppose, would requisition him asa specimen._

  _I fully intend to go to Earth with them_, Jrann-Pttt mused, _butcertainly not in that capacity. Nor would I care to be a specimen. Imust formulate some concrete plan._

  The captain was crawling on top of the spaceship, scraping off the driedmud, brushing away the leaves and dust that marred its shining purity.The hot, humid haze that poured down from the yellow clouds made themetal surface a little hell. Yet it was hardly less warm on the otherside of the clearing, where Miss Anspacher tried desperately to write upher notes on a table that kept sinking into the spongy ground, andhindered by the thick wind that had arisen half an hour before and whichkept blowing her papers off. The sweet odor of the flowers tucked in theopen neck of her already grimy white blouse suddenly sickened her andshe flung them into the mud.

  "We won't be going back to Earth for a long time!" she called. Gatheringup the purple-stained papers, she came toward the others, little puffsof mist rising at each step. "We like it here. Lovely country."

  How could she think to please even the savage she fancied him to be bysuch an inanity, Jrann-Pttt wondered. No one could possibly like thatfetid swamp. Or was it not so much that she was trying to please him asconvince herself? Was there some reason the terrestrials had for needingto like Venus. It hovered on the edge of the women's minds. If only itwould emerge completely, he could pick it up, but it lurked in theshadows of their subconscious, tantalizing him.

  "I'd like to know when we're going to start putting up the shelters,"Mrs. Bernardi said, pushing a streak of fog-yellow hair out of her eyes."I can't stand being cooped up for another night on that ship."

  "You're planning to put up shelters--to live outside of the ship?" Thiswould seem to confirm his darkest suspicions. Even a temporarysettlement would leave them too open to visitation from the commandant.What his attitude toward the aliens might be, Jrann-Pttt didn't know. Hemight consider them as specimens, as enemies or as potential allies.What his attitude toward Jrann-Pttt and his companion would be, however,the saurian knew only too well. Had they reported the lieutenant'sdemise immediately, it was possible the commandant might have beenbrought to believe it was an accident. Now he would unquestionably thinkJrann-Pttt had killed Merglyt-Ruuu on purpose--which was not true; howwas Jrann-Pttt to know that the mud into which he'd knocked thelieutenant was quicksand?

  "Anything against putting up shelters?" Captain Greenfield growled fromhis perch.

  "Monster!" the mosquito-bat shrieked at the cat. "Monster! Monster!"

  * * * * *

  There was a painfully embarrassed silence.

  "The creature is not intelligent," Jrann-Pttt explained, smiling. "Itmerely has vocal apparatus that can reproduce a frequently heard word,like--you have a bird, I believe, a--" he searched their minds for theword--"a parrot."

  "Monster!" the mosquito-bat continued. "Monster! Monster!"

  "Shut up or I'll wring your neck!" the captain snarled. The mosquito-batobeyed sullenly, apparently recognizing the threat in his tone.

  But the concept of "monster" hung heavily in the air between theterrestrials and the lizard-man. _They should not feel so bad about it_,he thought, _for they are the monsters themselves. But that would neveroccur to them and I can hardly reassure them by saying...._

  "Don't worry," Professor Bernardi said smoothly. "To him, it's we whoare the monsters."

  A sudden gust of wind nearly whipped the tablecloth out of Jrann-Pttt'shands. He fought with it for a moment, glad of something tangible tocontend with. "About the shelters," he said. "They might not stand upagainst a storm."

  "So this is monsoon country," Bernardi observed thoughtfully. "Do youknow when the storms usually come, Jrann-Pttt?" The other shook hishead. "Peculiar. There usually is a season for that sort of thing."

  "I ... come from another part of the planet."

  "Storms here are bad, eh?" the captain commented, swinging himself downeasily. "Frankly, that worries me. Ship's resting on mud as far as I cansee, and if there's one thing I do know something about, it's mud. If itgot any wetter, the ship might sink."

  "Maybe we should leave," Mrs. Bernardi suggested. "Go to another part ofthe planet where it's drier, or--" she tried not to show the suddensurge of hope--"leave for home and come back after the rainy season."

  There was a sudden silence, and Jrann-Pttt found himself able to pick upthe answers to some of his questions from the alien minds. His worstfears were confirmed. Plan A was out. But something could still be donewith these creatures.

  "Doesn't she know?" the captain demanded accusingly. "You brought herhere without telling her?"

  Bernardi spread his hands wide in a futile gesture. "She should know;I've told her repeatedly. She just doesn't understand ... or doesn'twant to."

  "I know they'll forgive us," Mrs. Bernardi said stubbornly."We--you--haven't done anything really wrong, so how could they doanything terrible to us? After all, didn't they refuse you the fundsbecause they said you couldn't--"

  "Shhh, Louisa," her husband commanded.

  Jrann-Pttt smiled to himself.

  --"do it," she went on. "And you did. So they were wrong and they'llhave to forgive us."

  "Tcha!" Miss Anspacher said. "Since when was there any fairness injustice?"

  "On the other hand," Mrs. Bernardi continued, "we have no idea of howdangerous the storms here could be."

  "Very dangerous," Jrann-Pttt said.

  "For you, perhaps," the captain retorted. "Maybe not for us."

  "Now that's silly," Miss Anspacher said. "You can see that Jrann-Pttt ismuch more--" she blushed--"sturdily built than we are."

  "I don't mean that we could face it without protection," the captainreplied angrily. "Naturally I mean that our superior technology couldcope with the effects of any storm."

  "Well, Captain, we'll have
to put that superior technology to use atonce," the professor told him. "You'd better start blasting that rock."

  Laden with equipment and malevolent thoughts, the captain trudged offinto the murky jungle. The others would not even offer to help.Confounded scientists; they certainly took his status as captainseriously. He wished, for a disloyal moment, that he had stayed onEarth. The quiet routine of a test pilot had prepared him for nothinglike this.