f his classmates would
just tuck him under his arm and take him on home--or to the next
lecture. Remember, they only weigh about four hundred pounds on Nansal,
which is no more to them than fifty pounds is to us."

"True enough," Wade agreed. "But you know, I'd hate to have him wrap
those arms of his about me. He might get excited, or sneeze or
something, and--_squish!_"

"You and your morbid imagination." Fuller sat down in one of the seats.
"Let's see if we can't get a three-way conversation going; this guy is
interesting."

Arcot and Morey awoke nearly three hours later, and the Earthmen ate
their breakfast, much to Torlos' surprise.

"I can understand that you need far more food than we do," he commented,
"but you only ate a few hours ago. It seems like a tremendous amount of
food to me. How could you possibly grow enough in your cities?"

"So _that's_ why they don't have any farms!" Fuller said.

"Our food is grown out on the plains outside the cities, where there is
room," Arcot explained. "It's difficult, but we have machines to help
us. We could never have developed the cone type of city you have,
however, for we need huge huge quantities of food. If we were to seal
ourselves inside our cities as your people have to protect themselves
from enemies, we would starve to death very quickly."

"You know," Morey said, "I'll have to admit that Torlos' people are a
higher type of creation than we are. Man, and all other animals on
Earth, are parasites of the plant world. We're absolutely incapable of
producing our own foods. We can't gather energy for ourselves. We're
utterly dependent on plants.

"But these men aren't--at least not so much so. They at least generate
their own muscular energy by extracting heat from the air they breathe.
They combine all the best features of plants, reptiles, and mammals. I
don't know where they'd be classified biologically!"

After the meal, they went to the control room and strapped themselves
into the control seats. Arcot checked the fuel gauge.

"We have plenty of lead left," he said to Morey, "and Torlos has assured
me that we will be able to get more on Nansal. I suggest we show him how
the space control works, so that he can tell the Nansalian scientists
about it from personal experience.

"In this sun's gravitational field, we'll lose a lot of power, but as
long as it can be replaced, we're all right."

Turning to the Nansalian, Arcot pointed out towards the little