"Okay, okay," I prodded. "You went inside, and—"
Snow shook her head. "No, I didn't. If you were on a strange planet, would you go into a cave after a red-scaled creature that looked like a pint-sized dragon?" She added, matter-of-factly, "Besides, there was a sign in front of the cave mouth, telling Earth people that it was forbidden to enter any of the many Martian caves that lay on the hillsides. It seems they're old volcanic tunnels, and wind like labyrinths into the planet. Some of the earlier colonists vanished there, you know."
"Ye gods!" I growled. "What did you do, then? Leave the sugarfoot standing at the cave mouth like an untipped bellboy?"
"More or less," she admitted. "It seemed to want to take me with it, but I begged off as politely as possible, and went back into town. Only, when I got there, the first thing I saw was my own picture on the stereo screen outside the public auditorium."
"With shoot-to-kill commands ringing into the street," I nodded. "I suppose you swooned away on the pavement?"
Snow gave me a black look. "Mister Delvin, I do not swoon!"
I shrugged. "Just as well. Marsport has no pavement, anyhow."
"Ho ho," she said. "Do you want to hear the rest of this, or not?"
"Sorry," I said. "Go on."
"Well, there didn't seem to be anything else to do then, but to get out of town, fast. I hadn't been spotted, yet. I guess my picture had only just gotten onto the screen. So I hurried back to where that cave mouth was, and the sugarfoot was still there, waiting for me."