us to fry together!
We don't need anything more than that!"

Diane's voice came on the speaker:

"_Sir, the last radar fixes on the planets in range give us a course
directly toward the sun. I'll repeat the observations._"

The skipper growled. Taine thrust himself forward. He snarled:

"Why doesn't this Plumie take off its helmet? It lands on oxygen planets!
Does it think it's too good to breathe our air?"

Baird caught the Plumie's eye. He made a gesture suggesting the removal
of the space helmet. The Plumie gestured, in return, to a tiny vent in
the suit. He opened something and gas whistled out. He cut it off. The
question of why he did not open or remove his helmet was answered. The
atmosphere he breathed would not do men any good, nor would theirs do him
any good, either. Taine said suspiciously:

"How do we know he's breathing the stuff he let out then? This creature
isn't human! It's got no right to attack humans! Now it's trying to trick
us!" His voice changed to a snarl. "We'd better wring its neck! Teach its
kind a lesson--"

The skipper roared at him.

"Be quiet! Our ship is a wreck! We have to consider the facts! We and
these Plumies are in a fix together, and we have to get out of it before
we start to teach anybody anything!" He glared at Taine. Then he said
heavily: "Mr. Baird, you seem to notice things. Take this Plumie over the
ship. Show him our drive melted down, so he'll realize we can't possibly
tow his ship into an orbit. He knows that we're armed, and that we can't
handle our war heads at this range! So we can't fool each other. We might
as well be frank. But you will take full note of his reactions, Mr.
Baird!"

* * * * *

Baird advanced, and the skipper made a gesture. The Plumie regarded Baird
with interested eyes. And Baird led the way for a tour of the _Niccola_.
It was confusing even to him, with right hand converted to up and left
hand to down, and sidewise now almost vertical. On the way the Plumie
made more clear, flutelike sounds, and more gestures. Baird answered.

"Our gravity pull was that way," he explained, "and things fell so fast."

He grasped a handrail and demonstrated the speed with which things fell
in normal ship-gravity. He used a pocket communicator for the falling
weight. It was singularly easy to say some things, even highly technical
ones, because they'd be what the Plumie would want to know. But quite
commonplace things woul