"Done it," McBride repeated dumbly. "Done what?"
Then Flaunders was shaking him by the shoulders and grinning. "Come out of it, man! You're safe; we all are, now! There's no need for any more of this—gluttony! Don't you understand? I've won! I know how to treat the fruit, even the edible animals of this world, so we can eat them and they won't hurt us a bit!"
McBride tried to call order to mind, starting from the beginning. He looked dazedly at the gun in his hand.
Flaunders laughed. "Don't look so surprised to be alive. One of the men hit your arm just in time. You missed death by an inch."
It was all too much at one time, a skirling confusion.
"That what you said about beating the poison," McBride said. "Are you sure? It's not just something on paper, something not proven?"
"Lord, no," Flaunders said, fighting down an urge to shout. "I had it worked out yesterday, but it still had to be tested and the white rats and two monkeys we brought along for experimental purposes were gone. So I went out last night and gathered some fruit and treated it and tried it on myself. Just look at me and you have your answer. I feel fine."
Still dazed, still not quite understanding how everything had happened, McBride started back toward the ship with the others. But one thing he knew. Venus had been beaten!
The meal was all day in the preparing. The eating was a gala event, a banquet, a roaring party. It lasted two hours.