The Project Gutenberg EBook of Collector's Item, by Evelyn E. Smith

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Title: Collector's Item

Author: Evelyn E. Smith

Illustrator: EMSH

Release Date: March 18, 2010 [EBook #31686]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Collector's Item

By EVELYN E. SMITH

Illustrated by EMSH

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
December 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _Being trapped in the steaming h--l of Venus is no excuse for
forgetting one's manners--but anyone abducted, marooned, tricked, kept
from tea might well crack under the strain!_]

"What I should like to know," Professor Bernardi said, gazing pensively
after the lizard-man as he bore the shrieking form of Miss Anspacher off
in his scaly arms, "is whether he is planning to eat her or make love to
her. Because, in the latter instance, I'm not sure we should interfere.
It may be her only chance."

[Illustration]

"Carl!" his wife cried indignantly. "That's a horrid thing to say! You
must rescue her at once!"

"Oh, I suppose so," he said, then gave his wife a nasty little grin that
he knew would irritate her. "It isn't that she's unattractive, my dear,
in case you hadn't noticed, though she's pretty well past the bloom of
youth--"

"_Will_ you stop making leering noises and go save her or _not_?"

"I was coming to that. It's just that she persists in using her Ph.D. as
a club to beat men into respectful pulps. Men don't like being beaten
into respectful pulps, whether by a man or a woman. Now if she'd only
learned that other people have feelings--"

"If you don't stop lecturing and go, I will!" his wife threatened.

"All right, all right," he said wearily. "Come on, Mortland."

* * * * *

The two scientists slogged through the steamy, odorous jungle of Venus
a