"Of course not," said Steve impatiently. "But—"
"Then I'll tell you," roared Chuck, "if you'll shut that big yap of yours and give me a chance to talk. It's—swamp-musk, Steve! The rarest epiphyte on Earth grows wild here on Daan like daisies. Swamp-musk—the basic ingredient of methioprane!"
CHAPTER XVI
A Friend in Need
For a moment while his blood seemed to halt in his veins, Stephen Duane stared at his friend. Then his heart resumed its interrupted tempo with violent resurgence, and he gripped Chuck's arm fiercely.
"Swamp-musk!" he choked. "Chuck—are you sure?"
"Listen," said Lafferty, "I ain't no surer of my own name. These swamps are simply lousy with that stuff. There's so much of it that if it was poison ivy I'd be one big itch on legs!"
"And the Venusians don't know what it is?"
Chuck snorted. "They know what it is. They call it klaar, which is Venusian for 'nuisance weed.' But they don't know what it can do, or why would they have us destroying it as fast as we can clear it out of the bogs?