gravity with the ease of an Earthly kangaroo, came the joherc, odd face almost like that of an anxious child, as its unmoving gaze watched the bobbing smelling-salt container on Cardew’s waist belt—
The forest became sparser as the two progressed, but its life teemed as furiously as of yore. Here and there a deadly lance-stem, fastest growing thing in the wilderness, stabbed outward with an unbearably cold, dagger-like frond, able at close quarters to penetrate the thick armor of the spacesuits.
Somehow the two avoided the horrors, only to find themselves constantly dodging whizzing feather-spheres and jabbering ostriloaths. Ever and again they found themselves hurled to the ground as the cannon-ball hardness and speed of the feather-spheres knocked their legs from under them. Nor were their feelings improved at finding the joherc not far behind in the moonlight.
“I wish you’d go away, Jo!” Cardew snorted in discomfiture, and his voice boomed through his microphone on the creature’s tiny ears. “Go play tag with the cannon balls! In plain words, scram!”
Jo sat on his tail and waited, cast a thoughtful pair of eyes toward the now vaguely dawn-lighted sky.
“No go,” Cardew growled to the girl, shrugging. “I guess he’ll follow until we reach the spaceship.”
They struggled on again. Then, in the increasing light, they suddenly saw ahead that lance-stems and Fishnets were smashing and splintering violently under the force of enormous feet. Exactly as they had expected, a huge specimen of the sican genus came blundering into view.
Cardew’s fingers tensed on his oxygen pistol; but long before he could take aim, something shot past him in a blur of motion, stumpy arms and hands flung wide, block-like legs tensing into bulgings of muscle at each terrific spring.
“Jo!” the girl cried in amazement. “Of all the foolhardy things—”
“Don’t be too sure!” Cardew interrupted her tensely. “These Jovian blighters, especially the bipeds, have got strength beyond imagination. Look!”
He pointed quickly. The joherc had already seized the powerful sican by the throat, was crushing, with every scrap of his enormous, concentrated, tight-packed strength, into that leathery neck, performing his actions at such a terrific rate it was hardly possible to follow him. Working against a gravity two and a half times more powerful than Earth’s, his actions correspondingly increased in like ratio.
He was obviously lighter than his antagonist, and by far the more intelligent. The sican finally retreated, thin, aqueous humor freezing solid on its thick neck as fast as it appeared.
“Bet the air smells even more pungent than usual outside,” Claire said reflectively as she watched the brute retreat in the now full daylight. “Imagine bursting a bladder of pure ammonia in an atmosphere already thick with it!”
“I can imagine!” Cardew murmured. Then he turned quickly as Jo came springing back, grinning hugely. “Nice going, Jo!” he exclaimed in gratitude, swinging round his smelling-salt container. “Here are some crystals for services rendered!”
The Jovian’s powerful tail sent him thumping to Cardew’s side. The greedy, scaled fingers scooped out a dozen of the crystals before the pressure had a chance to crush them, transferring them to his wide mouth with astonishing avidity.
“Ammonia, so you say,” he said suddenly in a hoarse voice—and the two stared at him blankly. “Your poison. Good to me. Block salt extra good. Cliffs of it—way there!” He swung his blocky arm vaguely.
“That covers a lot of territory,” Claire murmured.
“Yeah, about two hundred and sixty-five thousand miles of it,” Cardew agreed dryly. Then he looked at the Jovian in puzzlement. “So you talk, eh?”
“Read mind,” Jo explained briefly. “Not very clear—only damn smatterings. Not sure of position of words but meaning get. Read minds easily.”
“You’re ammonia, aren’t you? Formed by pressure and below zero temperature?”
“For years numbering hundreds,” Jo agreed affably. “Eat white salt. Water, you call it. Peroxides, too. Plenty of those. And crystals—like I saved your life for. You got them.”
“Hm-m-m,” Cardew murmured, frowning. “Strikes me as queer to find a fellow like you hopping about on a mad world like this, and yet you can read thoughts. High mental development, eh?”
“Very high,” Jo agreed modestly. “I am clever. I have oriental, too. No, not oriental—orientation!”
“What’s that?” Claire asked in puzzlement.
“Sort—sort of homing instinct common in pigeons,” Cardew explained. “And you’ve got it, Jo?”
“You’re right I have! And I smell, too!”
Cardew grinned. “You’re telling us! But I suppose you mean you have a strong sense of smell? Well, thanks for the help, anyway. We’ve got to be getting along.”
“You can’t do without my clever ideas,” Jo remarked flatly. “I’m coming like hell with you.”
Cardew winced as he caught sight of the girl coolly smiling at him.
“Seems to be reading your language quite well, doesn’t he?” she asked sweetly.
He looked anxiously. “Just what I’m afraid of! If he happens on the language I used at the settlement, he’ll set the atmosphere on fire.”
He caught her by the arm, and they pushed on again, followed constantly by the tireless Jo, occasionally directing their path. He stopped only now and again to break off pieces of unclassifiable crystallized bark and jam it in his mouth. Then, with that same look of asinine foolishness on his face, he sprang on behind them.
By another nightfall they had cleared the jungle—but away to the west, under the lowering sky, there beat scarlet tremblings and pulsings.
“Guess we ought to rest, but I don’t like risking it with that going on,” Cardew muttered wearily.
“The Great Red Spot, eh?” Claire mused.
“Correct. And from the look of things, it’s in a state of eruption. It may mean a thousand-mile flood of destruction. Coming our way, too! Eh, Jo?”
The joherc fixed his odd eyes on the disturbance. “Better step on hurry,” he suggested anxiously. “Give yourselves gas, I imagine. The way is straight; I know it.”
“What way?” Cardew demanded irritably. “For Heaven’s sake, pick your words straight, Jo! Can we rest, or is the danger too great?”
“I’ll say!” Jo responded surprisingly. “Straight is the way to Seven Peaks, and then to Turquoise Sea and oxygen block cliffs—out to spaceship. That’s where you head?”
“Sure, but how did you know?” Cardew shrugged wearily. “Oh, I’d forgotten your thought reading for the moment. If you know the way, why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
Jo didn’t answer the question. Instead, he said slyly, “Way guided for crystals only. Like hell I want them now. Step on it!”
Cardew
