Browne's voice came ringing up: "Come on down, fellows; I've got him!"

The shaft guard light flicked to green. Fitzgerald and I dropped down to first.

Browne had apparently had his chair directly under the shaft; it was back from the touchdown pad now and Hirm Sulay was in it, vainly wriggling, shame-faced.

"Now maybe we'll find out a thing or two—" Browne said meaningfully, bending toward the alien.

"Wait a minute," I cut in and related what Hirm Sulay had told me upstairs.

"Is it true?" Browne demanded.

Hirm Sulay nodded.