A hearty voice roared, "Well, Doctor, why the gloomy look on such a fine day?"
He looked up in surprise. The voice had come from Old Man Snead, Exec of the Patrol-ship. Not only was he astonished at being addressed by the dour old man but was almost made speechless by the sight of the Exec fondling one of the Teddy Bears.
"You won't find anyone there," Snead said. "Everything was so peaceful that the Skipper gave permission to all hands to alight." He stared at the Teddy Bear which refused to leave Boyette. "Nice looking pet you have there. Sure tame, aren't they?"
Boyette looked down and saw the Bear gazing up at him reproachfully. Again he felt an inclination to lean over and stroke the beast. He resisted with no difficulty as the Exec strolled off. With him went Boyette's last hope. The Exec's noted aversion to pets of any type had made him the man most likely to resist what appeared to be a suggestive hypnosis being applied by the alien beasts.
The subtle delving at his mind was still apparent but easier now to resist than at first. The capture of the Exec's will left no one to turn to, so a plan began to form in Boyette's mind—one which he must carry to completion all on his own.
He pretended to fall under the power of the Teddy Bear and leaned over, picking it up. To all outward appearances he was just as absorbed with it as the rest of the crew were with theirs. The only difference was that he promptly headed for the ship rather than out on the meadow with the others.
The ship did prove to be empty and he placed the Bear on a workbench in his lab. It sat watching intently, a gleam of intelligence every so often breaking through the innocent mask of blank innocence. Boyette moved around aimlessly, aware of the scrutiny and trying to appear busy. However the ruse was giving him an opportunity to think over his plan.
His main problem right now was to verify his suspicions. And the only way to do that would be through one of the animals itself. Then would follow the disclosure to the skipper and crew. First, though, they'd have to be released from their hypnosis.
A Brain Emanation Recorder would be just the thing of course. It was used to transmit the thought pictures of one mind to another. Its primary function was to detect brain deterioration caused by radiation in space but other experiments had been made. Pure thought knew no language barriers, so the difficulty didn't lie there. It was getting the Bear to cooperate. He could over-power it but its evident mental control would enable it to blank off its thoughts.
The crew would be returning before long and Boyette was becoming desperate. His gaze fell on a vial of the new Martian truth serum and the solution fell into place like tumblers in a lock. Still he had to be careful. Some Earth animals no larger than the Bears packed a pretty mean wallop when aroused or cornered.