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the speaker. Raeker whirled back to his panel and closed the microphone switch.
    "Yes, Nick? What does Swift say?"

    "In effect, no. He wants nothing to do with anything in this village but you."
    "Didn't you explain the language problem to him?"
    "Yes, but he says that if I was able to learn his words you, who are my teacher, should be able to learn them more quickly. Then he will not have to depend on people he doesn't trust to tell him what you're saying. I hope he's right. He's willing to leave the rest of us here, but you have to go with him." "I see. You'd better agree, for now; it will at least keep those of you who are alive out of further trouble. It may be that we'll be able to arrange a little surprise for Swift in the near future. You tell him that I'll do what he says; I'll go along with him to the caves - I suppose he'll be starting back there tomorrow, though if he wants to stay longer don't discourage him. When they go, you stay where you are; find everyone who's still alive and get them back in shape - I suppose most of you are injured - and then wait until I get in touch with you. It may be some days, but leave it to me."
    Nick was a fairly fast thinker, and remembered at once that Fagin could travel at night without the aid of fire - rain did not suffocate him. He thought he saw what the teacher planned to do; it was not his fault that he was wrong. The word "bathyscaphe" had never been used in his hearing.
    "Teacher!" he called, after a moment's thought. "Wouldn't it be better if we moved as soon as we could, and arranged some other place to meet you after you escape? He'll come right back here sure as rainfall."
    "Don't worry about that. Just stay here, and get things back to normal as soon as possible. I'll be seeing you."
    "All right, Teacher." Raeker leaned back in his seat once more, nodding his head slowly. The Drommian must have spent a good deal of time on Earth; he was able to interpret the man's attitude. "You seem a great deal happier than you were a few minutes ago," he remarked. "I take it you have seen your way out of the situation."
    "I think so," replied Raeker. "I had forgotten the bathyscaphe until I mentioned it to you; when I did recall it, I realized that once it got down there our troubles would be over. The trouble with that robot is that it has to crawl, and can be tracked and followed; the bathyscaphe, from the point of view of the natives down there, can fly. It has outside handling equipment, and when the crew goes down they can simply pick up the robot some night and fly it away from the cliff. I defy Swift to do any constructive tracking."
    "Then isn't Nick right? Won't Swift head straight for the village? I should think you'd have done better to follow Nick's suggestion."
    "There'll be time to move after we get the robot. If they leave the village before, we'll have a lot of trouble finding them, no matter how carefully we arrange a meeting beforehand. The area is not very well mapped, and what there is doesn't stay mapped very well."
    "Why not? That sounds rather strange."
    "Tenebra is a rather strange planet. Diastrophism is like Earth's weather; the question is not whether it will rain tomorrow but whether your pasture will start to grow into a hill. There's a team of geophysicists champing at the proverbial bit, waiting for the bathyscaphe to go down so they can set up a really close working connection with Nick's group. The general cause we know - the atmosphere is mostly water near its critical temperature, and silicate rocks dissolve fairly rapidly under those circumstances. The place cools off just enough each night to let a little of the atmosphere turn liquid, so for the best part of two Earth days you have the crust washing down to the oceans like the Big Rock Candy Mountain. With three Earth gravities trying to make themselves felt, it's hardly surprising that the crust is readjusting all the time.
    "Anyway, I think we're set up now. It won't be morning down there