Johnny had some tall explaining to do about his lack of armor. He was in a tight spot, for the less he let anyone know, the more chance he had to find some way of rescuing Baba.

Johnny was very careful about his explanation. There might still be a way. The fact that he had been seen on top of New Plymouth Rock made his explanation easier. He simply said that he had been looking for a place to hide the little bear and, in order for Baba to help take him up the rock, he had had to chance taking off his armor. He said nothing about Baba and the arrow-birds.

Being found in the jungle was harder to explain without telling a lie—but he managed it. He said that he and Baba had taken a route down that had made them land on the jungle side of the rock. It didn't explain why they were beyond the clearing, but his parents seemed to assume that he had been trying to get among the brush where he could hide from the animals. He said nothing at all about the caves in the rock. It was a pretty thin story, but his family was too relieved that he had come home alive to worry much about it.

It was long past supper time when the explaining was over and his mother began to prepare a meal.

Ordinarily Johnny's father would not have been home even for supper. Rocket day was a busy time for the leader of the colony. But with all the confusion, the business of the day had to be put aside.

It was a strangely sad and silent house. Johnny himself was so good his parents could hardly recognize him. He had showered without being asked and changed into clean clothes. His hands were perfectly clean at the table. His mother had hidden Baba's high chair away; the little bear had always sat with them at table. It was a quiet meal.

Often after the before-sleep meal Johnny and his father worked on model rockets, but this evening models were forgotten. Johnny got a book and his father busied himself with papers. But Johnny didn't read. He kept thinking of Baba, all alone in the settlement storage house, surrounded by guards. The whole area was lit up in case hunters should try to steal the little bear just as they had stolen the marva claws.

The family sat in silence. Once Johnny saw his mother wipe a tear away from her eyes. He knew she liked Baba, too. But she liked him only as a pet.

"Dad," he said suddenly. His father looked up from his work. "Would you—?" Johnny didn't know how to put the question he had to ask. "I mean ... well, the colony's in pretty bad shape, isn't it?"

"Yes, son," his father said gravely, "it is."

"The million dollars we get for Baba will help out a lot, won't it?" Johnny was very serious. "But, without it, would everybody starve to death?"

"A million dollars will help the colony out," his father answered. "But even without it, nobody would starve. There are the meat fruit and berries to gather and the animals to hunt. But everyone would have a very hard time. It isn't a simple thing to keep a colony going. It is very difficult and very important. Mankind is reaching out, son, and some day we may inhabit planets of all the stars in the heavens. But only if Venus colony succeeds. It is a big thing, Johnny." Mr. Watson's voice was serious, as if he were talking to another man. Johnny was quiet a minute.

"Dad," he said slowly, "in order to get that million dollars would you have mother or me"—he paused—"put to sleep?"

"Johnny!" Johnny's mother broke in in a horrified voice. "That's no question to ask your father."

"I've got to know, Mother. I've just got to," Johnny said earnestly, his brow wrinkled.

Johnny's father looked at him strangely.

"Did you really think," he asked in a tight, hurt voice, "I would do a thing like that?"

"Not even Uncle Nathan?" Johnny persisted. Nathan was his mother's brother.

"All right, Johnny," his father said in a firm voice. "I'll answer you. No, I wouldn't have you, your mother, or your Uncle Nathan 'put to sleep' for any amount of money—for the colony or for myself. But you must understand, Johnny, you aren't the same as a little bouncing bear."

"But Baba—" Johnny began.

"Baba is an animal," Johnny's mother broke in. "I know how you love him. But you have to understand that your father could not do differently from what he did." She came over to Johnny and put her arm around him. "We love Baba, too, and it hurts us to give him up. Still we must. You do understand, don't you?"

Johnny looked up into his mother's face and smiled. It was a very small and very weak smile, but a smile none the less.

"I understand," he said, and turned back to his father. "Thanks for answering my question, Dad." Johnny felt better for the first time since Baba had been put in the cage. Now he knew just what he had to do. It was right to do it. Baba was as close to him as any brother.

"Do you think I could go see Baba before sleep time, Dad? You know he won't eat if I'm not there."

Johnny's father looked at his mother.

"It couldn't do any harm, Fred," she said. "Let the boy go. But he must be in bed soon."

"All right, son," his father answered. "But remember, the whole thing is out of our hands now. You'll just have to accept what is going to happen."

"O.K., Dad," Johnny said. Everything was going to be all right, but he'd need every ounce of courage he had.

A few minutes later Jeb, the old guard, let Johnny and his father into the store house.

The little bear sat quietly in his cage. There were a dozen uncracked nuts on the floor. An untouched bar of chocolate lay beside him.

"I'm sure glad to see you!" said old Jeb. "Ever since he got here the little critter's been sitting just like that, kind of crying to himself. He wouldn't pay attention even when I gave him the chocolate."

"He'll be all right now," Johnny's father said.

"It probably oughtn't to bother me so much." Jeb closed the door and stood there with them. He took off his headglobe and scratched his head. "But my partner'n me caught one of the little ones once. We watched it just waste away, crying like that all the time. I always figured we should have let it go. But then there was always the chance it'd grow up and be worth a million." He glanced down at Johnny, who was removing his armor, and came to a stumbling halt. "Sorry, kid," he said. He put his headglobe back on and went out.

As soon as he saw Johnny, the little bear's ears perked up.

"Hi!" he clicked.

Johnny winked.

Johnny's father stood there and watched them.

"Remember, Johnny," he cautioned, "this is just a visit. What the colony decides in this matter goes."

"I know, Dad," Johnny answered.

"I'll be back in half an hour," his father said. "Get him to eat, if you can. Night will be here in a few hours and he'll sleep then." With this he opened the door and left.

Johnny rushed to the cage. His hand was on the latch when the door opened again. It was old Jeb.

"Sorry, son, but I got orders not to leave you alone with the critter. If he ever got out he'd be mighty hard to catch." Jeb walked over and seated himself on a box.

"That's all right," Johnny said, and squatted down in front of the cage. It wasn't part of the plan for Baba to get away—yet. "Besides, he wouldn't run away while I'm here," he said.

"Can't take no chances." Jeb sprawled out as if glad to be off his feet. Johnny turned to Baba.

"Baba," Johnny clicked in the marva language, "can you get out of here, if you want to?" Johnny didn't like to talk in the clicking language with Jeb around, but there was no avoiding it.

"Yes," the little bear answered after a time. But then he whimpered again.

"Doggone it, stop that!" Johnny said in English. Then he clicked, "If things work out right, you aren't going to have to go to Earth or get killed."

"But how?" Baba asked. He seemed to revive a little. "If I got out and came to you they'd just bring me back here."

"I know, but they don't think you're smart enough to do anything else. They don't know anything except that we were up on the rock."

The little bear grinned. Then suddenly he began to sniff. He looked all around him, found the chocolate and began to stuff it into his mouth, making loud smacking noises. Johnny gave a sigh of relief. Baba was on the mend.

"Now, listen, we've gotta make plans."

"But what can we do, if they know we were on the rock?" Baba clicked through a mouthful of chocolate mixed with nuts—his favorite combination.

Johnny took a deep breath. "We could run away into the jungle!" he clicked. He jumped when Jeb moved away from his box.

"That's quite a racket you two're making." Jeb walked over and peered at them from under jutting grey eyebrows. "Well, you've got the little devil to eatin'!" He smiled and waved at Baba. Baba waved back and the guard laughed. "It's a pity, that what it is. It's just a pity you're worth so much money!" He went back to his seat.

"But, Johnny," Baba clicked, "you couldn't live in the jungle."

"You can't live here—or on Earth. Sooner or later they're going to—well, they're going to want your claws and teeth. Out there we would have a chance. Why, we might even find some of the—" He put in the word 'wild' in English, for there was no word for it in the clicking language, "—marvas, and we could live with them."

"No!" Baba interrupted. "You might be killed. I can make the arrow-birds go away, but there are the horned snakes and the leopards and rhinosaurs and...."

"Wasn't that old rhinosaur about to go away?" Johnny broke in. "Just because you said so?"

"Maybe," Baba admitted. "He stopped a second. But then we don't know for sure!"

"I've got to take the chance. I've just got to!" Johnny insisted. "I can't let them take you away and use you for making somebody's rings or a mess of plastic. Remember that song you sang." Johnny tried to sing the little lullaby that Baba had sung on the top of New Plymouth Rock. The little bear grinned and put his paws over his ears.

"The words are right," he said, "but the tune is all wrong. Listen!" The little bear sang the song that was like the roll of a mockingbird's call.

"That's right pretty," Jeb said from his box. "I'd heard men say that the critters sang, but never did hear one myself. Old hunter friend of mine said he came on a marva once singing to her little ones that way. It was so pretty he stopped to listen and by gum if she didn't smell him and bounce off 'fore he could draw a bead on her."

"Baba sings real well—when he's happy," Johnny said, and turned back to Baba. "And you sing true, too, Baba," he clicked.

"All right," the little bear clicked. "How will we do it?"

The plan came out in a rush. Johnny had it all worked out. "It's Venus evening now," Johnny said, "and we're supposed to be in a sleep period. That means there won't be too many people up but guards. I'll take some food for me and some matches and a flashlight and some other things." He paused. "They leave you alone in here, don't they?"

"Yes," clicked Baba.

"Do you think you can cut a hole in the bottom of the cage?" Johnny asked.

"Easy!" The little bear touched a bar with his claws.

"Good. When you're out, dig a hole in the floor. But be careful. They have guards walking all around, and they already have lights rigged up. The switch is in between the double doors. Get your escape holes all made, turn out the lights, and then scoot! I'll be waiting for you by the rock. O.K.?"

The little bear nodded. "We'll have to find a place to be when it gets dark," he clicked. Baba didn't sleep as people did, but during the four day period of darkness he had to sleep most of the time.

"We'll find some place," Johnny clicked. "Now, listen. I'll try to get some sleep and I'll be ready in five hours. Don't try to get out before then. My folks will be asleep and I can slip out of the house. If it takes you longer, I'll wait."

"Leave it to me," Baba said.

They had everything settled and were playing together through the bars of the cage when Johnny's father came after him.

"Time for bed, son," his father said. "Say goodbye, now."

Johnny got into his armor, said goodnight to Jeb and followed his father outside. In the deep green twilight every building of the settlement stood out sharp and clear. A cool breeze was coming up. Johnny looked over to New Plymouth Rock. Behind that towering rock lay the vast and menacing jungle.