ot it, either. What say we head back for camp?"

Lindy gripped his hand impulsively. "All right, Judd--but I had a
brainstorm! I want it for a pet!"

"A pet?"

"Yes. I think it would be the cutest thing. Everyone would look and
wonder and I'll adore it!"

"We don't know anything about it. Maybe Earth would be too cold, or too
dry, or maybe we don't have anything it can eat. There are liable to be
a hundred different strains of bacteria that can kill it."

"I said I want it for a pet. See? Look at it! We can call it Black
Eyes."

"Black Eyes--" Judd groaned.

"Yes, Black Eyes. If you don't do this one thing for me, Judd--"

"Okay--okay. But I'm not going to do anything. You want it, you take
it."

Lindy frowned, looked at him crossly, then sloshed across the swamp
toward Black Eyes. The creature waited on its stump until she came quite
close, and then, with a playful little bound, it hopped onto her
shoulder, still squatting on its haunches. Lindy squealed excitedly and
began to stroke its silvery fur.

* * * * *

A month later, they returned to Earth. Judd and Lindy and Black Eyes.
The hunting trip had been a success--Judd's trophies were on their way
home on a slow freighter, and he'd have some fine heads and skins for
his study-room. Even Black Eyes had been no trouble at all. It ate
scraps from their table, forever sitting on its haunches and staring at
them with its big black eyes. Judd thought it would make one helluva
lousy pet, but he didn't tell Lindy. Trouble was, it never did anything.
It merely sat still, or occasionally it would bounce down to the floor
and mince along on its hind-legs for a scrap of food. It never uttered a
sound. It did not frolic and it did not gambol. Most of the time it
could have been carved from stone. But Lindy was happy and Judd said
nothing.

They had a little trouble with the customs officials. This because
nothing unknown could be brought to Earth without a thorough
examination.

At the customs office, a bespectacled official stared at Black Eyes,
scratching his head. "Never seen one like that before."

"Neither have I," Judd admitted.

"Well, I'll look in the book." The man did, but there are no thorough
tomes on Venusian fauna. "Not here."

"I could have told you."

"Well, we'll have to quarantine it and study it. That means you and your
wife go into quarantine, too. It could have something that's catching."

"Absurd!" Lin