"Better not," cautioned Disbro loftily. "We're more profitable as friends than as enemies."
"Friends!" agreed the leader. "Friends!"
"If you try any funny business—" went on Disbro. "Well, watch!"
He snapped his right-hand gun up and fired. The bullet snipped away a leaf the size of an opened umbrella. As the great green blob drifted down, Disbro fired again and again, until, ripped to rags, the leaf fell limply among the Venusians. They moaned, like awe-struck fog horns.
"Understand?" taunted Disbro. "Savvy? I could kill you all as easy as look at you."
"Friends!" promised the leader again.
"Max," muttered Disbro, "these birds quit very easily without a fight. But keep me covered from up here."
Planter's rope still dangled along the hull. Disbro slid down, coming to his feet on the raft-heap below. The Venusians gave back in wary confusion. Disbro allowed himself to smile upward.
"See what an ape you are, Max?" he chuckled. "You got a look at one of these, and thought it was a girl! You're not much of a picker, Max."
To the Venusian chief he said: "I think I'll muscle in on your territory."