lot of money. Now he laughed, patting his
wife's trim shoulder under the white tunic. "No, Lindy. It just doesn't
work that way. Not on Earth and not on Venus, either. You think there's
a pied-piper or something which calls all the animals away?"

"Maybe. I don't know much about those things."

"No. I don't think they went anyplace. They're just quiet. They didn't
come out of their holes or hovels or down from the trees. But why?"

"Well, let's forget it. Let's go back to camp. We can try again
tomor--look! Look, there's something!"

Judd followed her pointing finger with his eyes. Half-hidden by the
creepers and vines clinging to an old tree-stump, something was watching
them. It wasn't very big and it seemed in no hurry to get away.

"What is it?" Lindy wanted to know.

"Don't know. Never saw anything like it before. Venus is still an
unknown frontier; the books only name a couple dozen of the biggest
animals. But hell, Lindy, that's not _game_. I don't think it weighs
five pounds."

"It's cute, and it has a lovely skin."

Judd couldn't argue with that. Squatting on its haunches, the creature
was about twenty inches tall. It had a pointed snout and two thin, long
ears. Its eyes were very big and very round and quite black. They looked
something like the eyes of an Earthian tarsier, but the tarsier were
bloody little beasts. The skin was short and stiff and was a kind of
silvery white. Under the sheen, however, it seemed to glow. A diamond is
colorless, Judd thought, but when you see it under light a whole rainbow
of colors sparkle deep within it. This creature's skin was like that,
Judd decided.

"If we could get enough of them," Lindy was saying, "I'd have the most
unusual coat! Do you think we could find enough, Judd?"

"I doubt it. Never saw anything like it before, never heard of anything
like it. You'd need fifty of 'em, anyway. Let's forget about it--too
small to shoot, anyway."

"No, Judd. I want it."

"Well, I'm not going to stalk a five-pound--hey, wait a minute! I taught
you how to use this rifle, so why don't you bag it?"

Lindy grinned. "That's a fine idea. I was a little scared of some of
those big lizards and cats and everything, but now I'm going to take you
up on it. Here, give me your gun."

Judd removed the leather thong from his shoulder and handed the weapon
to her. She looked at it a little uncertainly, then took the clip of
shells which Judd offered and slammed it into the chamb