can't understand is how it's done. According to you, the animal
doesn't break the skin with its tongue and therefore nothing is released
into the bloodstream. All that seems necessary is that the animal be
near you." He shook his head behind the microscreen. "I don't think much
of the electrical analogy you used."

"I said the first thing I thought of. I don't know if that's the way it
works, but it seems to me like a pretty fair guess."

"The microbes _do_ cluster around nerves," said the doctor. "We know
that neural activity is partly electrical. If the level of that activity
can be increased, the bacteria might be killed by ionic dissociation."
He glanced speculatively at Bolden and the animal. "Perhaps you do
borrow nervous energy from the animal. We might also find it possible to
control the disease with an electrical current."

"Don't try to find out on me," said Bolden. "I've been an experimental
specimen long enough. Take somebody who's healthy. I'll stick with the
natives' method."

"I wasn't thinking of experiments in your condition. You're still not
out of danger." Nevertheless he showed his real opinion when he left the
room. He failed to plug in and flash the decontagion suit.

Bolden smiled at the doctor's omission and ran his hand through the fur.
He was going to get well.

* * * * *

But his progress was somewhat slower than he'd anticipated though it
seemed to satisfy the doctor who went on with his experiments. The
offending bacteria could be killed electrically. But the current was
dangerously large and there was no practical way to apply the treatment
to humans. The animal was the only effective method.

Kessler discovered the microbe required an intermediate host. A tick or
a mosquito seemed indicated. It would take a protracted search of the
mountains to determine just what insect was the carrier. In any event
the elaborate sanitary precautions were unnecessary. Microscreens came
down and decontagion suits were no longer worn. Bolden could not pass
the disease on to anyone else.

Neither could the animal. It seemed wholly without parasites. It was
clean and affectionate, warm to the touch. Bolden was fortunate that
there was such a simple cure for the most dreaded disease on Van Daamas.

It was several days before he was ready to leave the small hospital at
the edge of the settlement. At first he sat up in bed and then he was
allowed to walk acro