ue!" a voice shrilled behind him.

Clark whirled around and gasped in astonishment. Two squat dwarfish men
crouched at the far side of the clearing. When he swung up his 16 gauge,
two lights flashed, and it slid out of his hands. He buckled dizzily
with weakness and nausea, but then an invisible force jolted him upright
and motionless. He felt rigid as stone.

"Who are you?" Clark called out hoarsely.

They approached, jabbering in a strange tongue. Bluish dawnlight seemed
to tint their scrawny bare arms and legs a deeper, ghastly blue. From
weazel-shaped heads bulged enormous dark eyes which stared at him
unblinkingly. As they waddled closer they puffed under the weight of
heavy belts sagging with rows of odd, translucent instruments. One
creature wore ear-phones. The other, his bald head sunken between his
shoulders, opened a round, moist, pink-rimmed mouth and bowed stiffly.

"Forgive us, please," he piped. "My biologist friend has broken
regulations."

"Who are you?" Clark choked again.

The bald one's eyes closed and his belly quivered with high, tremulous
laughter. "Tell him, Ursi!"

"Don't blame me!" the one called Ursi squeaked, then pointed a claw-like
finger at a glowing disc in his belt. "Interference disturbed the
scanner scope. I didn't see him until he fired!"

Baldy chuckled. "He was after food, not your ugly hide. But in your
unseemly haste to escape, you dropped a valuable tool. A very careless
blunder. And now instead of mold specimens, you've collected a human. I
knew this expedition would prove interesting."

"We have to dispose of him!" Ursi shrieked and waved a black tube at
Clark menacingly.

"You'd kill him to recover your tool?" Baldy's nose twitched. "Remember
we prepare separate reports for the Council. Don't expect me to aid in
breaking the law."

Ursi was painfully silent.

* * * * *

Baldy seemed to relish his companion's distress. "You realize, Ursi,
you're responsible for this illegal contact? Also may I remind you that
the Law reads in part: On pain of death, no human shall be molested,
coerced or in any way injured by an expeditionary member's overt
action."

"Can't we bargain with him?" Ursi asked irritably.

"Why, of course. Offer him our ship or your life," Baldy said.

Ursi scowled. "If we take the tool and induce amnesia--"

"The Law clearly prohibits that."

"Let him keep it then," Ursi said angrily, rubbing a pointed blue chin