doesn't say 'Everyone drinks Voozy.' Wrong subject. 'Voozy drinks
_everyone_.' That tells us something! The Helgans must have soaked
liquid in through their pores. Naturally, they would prefer to be
drunk, instead of to drink."

Casker tried to dodge around the liquid, but it cut him off with a
merry gurgle. Desperately he picked up a small bale and threw it at
the Voozy. The Voozy caught the bale and drank it. Then it discarded
that and turned back to Casker.

Hellman tossed another box. The Voozy drank this one and a third and
fourth that Casker threw in. Then, apparently exhausted, it flowed
back into its vat.

Casker clapped down the lid and sat on it, trembling violently.

"Not so good," Hellman said. "We've been taking it for granted that
the Helgans had eating habits like us. But, of course, it doesn't
necessarily--"

"No, it doesn't. No, sir, it certainly doesn't. I guess we can see
that it doesn't. Anyone can see that it doesn't--"

"Stop that," Hellman ordered sternly. "We've no time for hysteria."

"Sorry." Casker slowly moved away from the Voozy vat.

"I guess we'll have to assume that their meat is our poison," Hellman
said thoughtfully. "So now we'll see if their poison is our meat."

Casker didn't say anything. He was wondering what would have happened
if the Voozy had drunk him.

In the corner, the rubbery block was still giggling to itself.

* * * * *

"Now here's a likely-looking poison," Hellman said, half an hour
later.

Casker had recovered completely, except for an occasional twitch of
the lips.

"What does it say?" he asked.

Hellman rolled a tiny tube in the palm of his hand. "It's called
Pvastkin's Plugger. The label reads: WARNING! HIGHLY DANGEROUS!
PVASTKIN'S PLUGGER IS DESIGNED TO FILL HOLES OR CRACKS OF NOT MORE
THAN TWO CUBIC VIMS. HOWEVER--THE PLUGGER IS NOT TO BE EATEN UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT, RAMOTOL, WHICH MAKES PVASTKIN'S
SO EXCELLENT A PLUGGER RENDERS IT HIGHLY DANGEROUS WHEN TAKEN
INTERNALLY."

"Sounds great," Casker said. "It'll probably blow us sky-high."

"Do you have any other suggestions?" Hellman asked.

Casker thought for a moment. The food of Helg was obviously
unpalatable for humans. So perhaps was their poison ... but wasn't
starvation better than this sort of thing?

After a moment's communion with his stomach, he decided that
starvation was _not_ better.

"Go ahead," he said.

Hellman slip