"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Captain!" Miss Anspacher said. "I, for one, trust Jrann-Pttt implicitly. Did you say this direction, Jrann-Pttt?" She stepped forward briskly. There was a loud splash and water closed over her head.
Captain Greenfield rushed forward to haul her out. "Well," she said, daintily coughing up mud, "I was wet to begin with, anyway."
"You're a brave little woman, Miss Anspacher," the captain told her admiringly.
"This sort of thing may present a problem," Professor Bernardi commented. "I hope that was only a pot-hole, that the water is not going to be consistently too deep for wading."
"There might be quicksand, too," Mrs. Bernardi said somberly. "In quicksand, one drowns slowly."
Dfar-Lll gave a start. Surely you don't intend to lead them back to base?
Precisely. The swamp is unfit for settlement.
But to return voluntarily to captivity?
Who mentioned anything about captivity? Assisted by our new friends, we have an excellent chance of taking over the ship and supplies by a surprise attack.
But why should these aliens assist us?