ed around until they had
a gadget that would throw out vibrations on exactly my wave-band.

Of course, not having any telenosis equipment, we weren't able to make a
real check of the contraption's effectiveness. I had to take the
technologists' word that it would work.

Frankly, I didn't feel any too well defended as I hopped the five
o'clock stratoliner back to Palm Beach.

The defense mech was enclosed in a black case that looked like a
portable radio or a portable typewriter or a small suitcase. When you
opened the lid, there was a flat surface having only one dial--for
volume. The vibrations had a radius of about three-quarters of a mile.

It was after six when I got back to my hotel. I had Grogan's address,
and he wasn't too far from where I was staying--but Grogan is not the
sort of person on whom you make a business call after business hours.

My confidence in the defense mech hadn't grown, but I knew of another
sure-fire defense, so after dinner I went to the bar to start setting it
up.

But I lugged the thirty-pound portable along, anyway, wishing that it
looked a little more like a briefcase instead of a typewriter or a
radio.

Not that it really mattered, though. I could have carried an open bird
cage with a live and screaming Calypsian _grimp_, odor and all, and
still not have attracted any attention--because it wouldn't have been
any more unusual than some of the guests at the hotel.

For a student of interplanetary biology, this would be a perfect
observation post. There aren't many forms of extraterrestrial life that
can accommodate themselves to Earth's conditions, but there are spots
that go out of their way to provide suitable conditions for anything
that comes along, and this was one of them.

* * * * *

In the two weeks I had been here, I had seen only one Calypsian
dominant, and he didn't happen to have a _grimp_ with him. But there
were a pair of Uranian _galgaque_--squat, gray, midget honeymooners--who
smelled just as bad. They left a few days after I got here.

Then there had been at least half a dozen flimsy, ethereal little
Venusians at one time or another, dragging themselves around and looking
unhappy as hell. None of them stayed more than a few days, and they
spent most of their time in the water.

I noticed one or two hairy, apelike dominants from Jupiter's third moon,
and a few of the snaky, scaly, six-limbed creatures from the second. In
addit