"Tree vwark."
"Oh," said Spike. He turned and waded on.
Rusty stared, aghast. These men weren't human.
"Hey!" he called. "What the hell's a 'Tree vwark?'"
Spike turned and smiled.
"Vwark that lives in trees," he answered, turned back to the water.
And Rusty knew he could expect nothing more. The Venusians were strange of body, had stranger ways. They never spoke of their activities. It was an instilled custom of their kind. And he knew why Spike had not interrogated further, uselessly.
Scattered and splashing, the four waded toward the distant hills. Earthmen, Venusian, Vulcanian.
The Venusian swam easily ahead, often disappearing for long periods beneath the surface, absorbing oxygen from the water as adequately as from the air.