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The swaying had come to a halt and it was dark The Explorer was not comfortable in the alien air It felt as thick as soup and he had to breath shallowly Even so-

He reached out in a sudden need for co was rough, he moved in an occasional spasm, and was obviously asleep The Explorer hesitated and decided not to wake him It would serve no real purpose

There would be no rescue, of course That was the penalty paid for the high profits which unrestrained competition could lead to The Merchant who opened a new planet could have a ten-yearto himself or, more likely, rent out to all comers at a stiff price It followed that planets were searched for in secrecy and preferably away from the usual trade routes In a case such as theirs then, there was little or no chance that another ship would coe of their subetherics except for the most improbable of coincidences Even if they were in their ship, that is, rather than in this-this-cage

The Explorer grasped the thick bars Even if they blasted those away, as they could, they would be stuck too high in open air for leaping

It was too bad They had landed twice before in the scout ship They had established contact with the natives, ere grotesquely huge, but ressive It was obvious that they had once owned a flourishing technology, but hadn&039;t faced up to the consequences of such a technology It would have been a wonderful market

And it was a tremendous world The Merchant, especially, had been taken aback He had known the figures that expressed the planet&039;s diaht-seconds, he had stood at the visiplate and er worlds," the Explorer said It wouldn&039;t do for an Explorer to be too easily impressed

"Inhabited?"

"Well, no"

"Why, you could drop your planet into that large ocean and drown it"

The Explorer s at his Arcturian homeland, which was smaller than most planets He said, "Not quite"

The Merchant followed along the line of his thoughts "And the inhabitants are large in proportion to their world?" He sounded as though the news struck hiht"

"Are you sure they are friendly?"

"That is hard to say Friendship between alien intelligences is an ierous, I think We&039;ve coroups that could not e and you know the results Introversion Retreat Gradual decadence and increasing gentleness"

"Even if they are such monsters?"

"The principle remains"

It was about then that the Explorer felt the heavy throbbing of the engines

He frowned and said, "We are descending a bit too quickly"

There had been so several hours before The planetary target was a huge one for an oxygen-water world Though it lacked the size of the uninhabitable hydrogen-aravity fairly norravitational forces fell off, but sloith distance In short, its gravitational potential was high and the ship&039;s calculator was a run-of-the- trajectories at that potential range That meant the Pilot would have to use manual controls

It would have been wiser to install a h-powered model, but that would have meant a trip to some outpost of civilization; lost time; perhaps a lost secret The Merchant de

The Merchant felt it necessary to defend his position now He said angrily to the Explorer, "Don&039;t you think the Pilot knows his job? He landed you safely twice before"

Yes, thought the Explorer, in a scout ship, not in this un-

He kept his eye on the visiplate They were descending too quickly There was no room for doubt Much too quickly

The Merchant said peevishly, "Why do you keep silence?"

"Well then, if you wish est that you strap on your floater and help ht He was no beginner The atravitational potential of this world, whipped and burned about the ship, but to the very last, it looked as though heit under control despite that