" he explained offhandedly. "It was a good fight. But
one of the creatures wouldn't stay and take his licking."

Alicia said steadily:

"There were some animals there. They looked rather like bears, only they
had enormous ears."

Cochrane looked at Johnny Simms with hot eyes. It was absurd to be so
chivalrous, perhaps, but he was enraged. After an instant he turned away
and went to the port. The burned-over area was now only ashes. At its
edge, charcoal showed. And now he could see trees and brushwood on
beyond. The trees did not seem strange, because no trees would have
seemed familiar. The brush did not impress him as exotic, because his
experience with actual plants was restricted to the artificial plants on
television sets and the artificially arranged plants on rooftops. He
hardly let his eyes dwell on the vegetation at all. He searched for
movement. He saw the moving furry rumps of half a dozen unknown
creatures as they dived into concealment as if they had been frightened.
He looked down and could see the hull of the ship and two of the three
take-off fins on which it rested.

The airlock door was opening out. It swung wide. It swung back against
the hull.

"Holden's making some sort of test of the air," Cochrane said shortly.
"The animals were scared when the outside door swung open. I'll see what
he finds out."

He hurried down. He found Babs standing beside the inner door of the
airlock. She looked somehow pale. There were two saucers of greenish
soup-like stuff on the floor at her feet. That would be, of course, the
algae from the air-purifying-system tanks.

"The algae were alive," said Babs. "Dr. Holden went in the lock to try
the air himself. He said he'd be very careful."

For some obscure reason Cochrane felt ashamed. There was a long, a
desperately long wait. Then sounds of machinery. The outer door closing.
Small whistlings--compressed air.

The inner door opened. Bill Holden came out of the lock, his expression
zestfully surprised.

"Hello, Jed! I tried the air. It's all right! At a guess, maybe a little
high in oxygen. But it feels wonderfully good to breathe! And I can
report that the trees are wood and the green is chlorophyll, and this
is an Earth-type planet. That little smoky smell about is completely
familiar--and I'm taking that as an analysis. I'm going to take a walk."

Cochrane found himself watching Babs' face. She looked enormously
relieved, but even Cochrane--who was lookin