Grant stared at the butterfly. Some thought the Jovians could read minds. Grant wondered. Then he decided to be honest. “Sixteen.”

Netse’s wings quit moving for a minute. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to assure me safe passage to your office. I will give you three-fourths of them,” Grant blurted. He had not meant to make an offer like that. He had intended to let Netse ask but the delicacy of his situation hit him abruptly and fully and he was weighed down with sudden desperation.

“How can you find the others?” asked Netse.

“I⁠—” Grant got cautious. “I have provided for that.”

The butterfly fluttered to the top of the dome and hung upside down for a moment. Then the whistling came again. “I am sorry. I do not see where I can be of any assistance.”

Grant was stunned. He held out both hands. “But⁠—”

The lights went out. The Earthman was at his side, leading him out. He was given his heat-gun. “But what⁠—why?⁠—I don’t understand,” Grant said, bewildered.

His escort looked at him, opened his mouth, and showed Grant he was tongueless. He positioned Grant on the square and a moment later Grant was back on the sidewalk.

Discouragement was on him like a great weight. It deadened him. It smothered him. He paced the streets and eventually found himself before a restaurant. He remembered then that he had not eaten for a long time. He went in and ordered oysters. That was about the only meat you could buy in The Pass and be sure of not eating some sentient being. Then, waiting, he sat in a booth with his head between his hands.