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the radio had not partially deafened him first. The commander knew perfectly well what was going on in the minds of his men, and had no desire to see frozen shreds of Lackland scattered over the beach.
    “Calm down!” Actually, Barlennan felt a very human warmth at his crew’s reaction to his apparent danger, but this was no time to encourage them. “Enough of you have played the fool here at no-weight so that you all should know I was in no danger!”
    “But you forbade—”
    “We thought—”
    “You were high —” A chorus of objections answered the captain, who cut them short.
    “I know I forbade such actions, and I told you why. When we return to high-weight and decent living we must have no habits that might result in our thoughtlessly doing dangerous things like that—” He waved a pincer-tipped
arm upward toward the tank’s roof. “You all know what proper weight can do; the Flyer doesn’t. He put me up there, as you saw him take me down, without even thinking about it. He comes from a place where there is practically no weight at all; where, I believe, he could fall many times his body length without being hurt. You can see that for yourselves: if he felt properly about high places, how could he fly?”
    Most of Barlennan’s listeners had dug their stumpy feet into the sand as though trying to get a better grip on it during this speech. Whether they fully digested, or even fully believed, their commander’s words may be doubted; but at least their minds were distracted from the action they had intended toward Lackland. A faint buzz of conversation arose once more among them, but its chief overtones seemed to be of amazement rather than anger. Dondragmer alone, a little apart from the others, was silent; and the captain realized that his mate would have to be given a much more careful and complete story of what had happened. Dondragmer’s imagination was heavily backed by intelligence, and he must already be wondering about the effect on Barlennan’s nerves of his recent experience. Well, that could be handled in good time; the crew presented a more immediate problem.
    “Are the hunting parties ready?” Barlennan’s question silenced the babble once more.
    “We have not yet eaten,” Merkoos replied a little uneasily, “but everything else—nets and weapons—is in readiness.”
    “Is the food ready?”
    “Within a day, sir.” Karondrasee, the cook, turned back toward the ship without further orders.
    “Don, Merkoos. You will each take one of these radios. You have seen me use the one on the ship—all you have to do is talk anywhere near it. You can run a really efficient pincer movement with these, since you won’t have to keep it small enough for both leaders to see each other.
    “Don, I am not certain that I will direct from the ship, as I originally planned. I have discovered that one can see over remarkable distances from the top of the flyer’s traveling machine; and if he agrees I shall ride with him in the vicinity of your operations.”
    “But, sir!” Dondragmer was aghast. “Won’t—won’t that thing scare all the game within sight? You can hear it coming a hundred yards away, and see it for I don’t know how far in the open. And besides—” He broke off, not quite sure how to state his main objection. Barlennan did it for him.
    “Besides, no one could concentrate on hunting with me in sight so far off the ground—is that it?” The mate’s pincers silently gestured agreement, and the movement was emulated by most of the waiting crew.
    For a moment the commander was tempted to reason with them, but he realized in time the futility of such an attempt. He could not actually recapture the viewpoint he had shared with them until so recently, but he did realize
that before that time he would not have listened to what he now considered “reason” either.
    “All right, Don. I’ll drop that idea—you’re probably right. I’ll be in radio touch with you, but will