thought pattern.This, in turn, would give us an insight into their nervous systems,which would imply their biochemical makeup."
Casker stood still, trying to decide whether he had enough strengthleft to strangle Hellman.
"For example," Hellman said, "what kind of vehicle would be used in aplace like this? Not one with wheels, since everything is up and down.Anti-gravity? Perhaps, but what _kind_ of anti-gravity? And why didthe inhabitants devise a boxlike form instead--"
Casker decided sadly that he didn't have enough strength to strangleHellman, no matter how pleasant it might be. Very quietly, he said,"Kindly stop making like a scientist. Let's see if there isn't_something_ we can gulp down."
"All right," Hellman said sulkily.
* * * * *
Casker watched his partner wander off among the cans, bottles andcases. He wondered vaguely where Hellman got the energy, and decidedthat he was just too cerebral to know when he was starving.
"Here's something," Hellman called out, standing in front of a largeyellow vat.
"What does it say?" Casker asked.
"Little bit hard to translate. But rendered freely, it reads:MORISHILLE'S VOOZY, WITH LACTO-ECTO ADDED FOR A NEW TASTE SENSATION.EVERYONE DRINKS VOOZY. GOOD BEFORE AND AFTER MEALS, NO UNPLEASANTAFTER-EFFECTS. GOOD FOR CHILDREN! THE DRINK OF THE UNIVERSE!"
"That sounds good," Casker admitted, thinking that Hellman might notbe so stupid after all.
"This should tell us once and for all if their meat _is_ our meat,"Hellman said. "This Voozy seems to be the closest thing to a universaldrink I've found yet."
"Maybe," Casker said hopefully, "maybe it's just plain water!"
"We'll see." Hellman pried open the lid with the edge of the burner.
Within the vat was a crystal-clear liquid.
"No odor," Casker said, bending over the vat.
The crystal liquid lifted to meet him.
Casker retreated so rapidly that he fell over a box. Hellman helpedhim to his feet, and they approached the vat again. As they came near,the liquid lifted itself three feet into the air and moved towardthem.
"What've you done now?" Casker asked, moving back carefully. Theliquid flowed slowly over the side of the vat. It began to flow towardhim.
"Hellman!" Casker shrieked.
Hellman was standing to one side, perspiration pouring down his face,reading his dictionary with a preoccupied frown.
"Guess I bumbled the translation," he said.
"Do something!" Casker shouted. The liquid was trying to back him intoa corner.
"Nothing I can do," Hellman said, reading on. "Ah, here's the error.It doesn't say 'Everyone drinks Voozy.' Wrong subject. 'Voozy drinks_everyone_.' That tells us something! The Helgans must have soakedliquid in through their pores. Naturally, they would prefer to bedrunk, instead of to drink."
Casker tried to dodge around the liquid, but it cut him off with amerry gurgle. Desperately he picked up a small bale and threw it atthe Voozy. The Voozy caught the bale and drank it. Then it discardedthat and turned back to Casker.
Hellman tossed another box. The Voozy drank this one and a third andfourth that Casker threw in. Then, apparently exhausted, it flowedback into its vat.
Casker clapped down the lid and sat on it, trembling violently.
"Not so good," Hellman said. "We've been taking it for granted thatthe Helgans had eating habits like us. But, of course, it doesn'tnecessarily--"
"No, it doesn't. No, sir, it certainly doesn't. I guess we can seethat it doesn't. Anyone can see that it doesn't--"
"Stop that," Hellman ordered sternly. "We've no time for hysteria."
"Sorry." Casker slowly moved away from the Voozy vat.
"I guess we'll have to assume that their meat is our poison," Hellmansaid thoughtfully. "So now we'll see if their poison is our meat."
Casker didn't say anything. He was wondering what would have happenedif the Voozy had drunk him.
In the corner, the rubbery block was still giggling to itself.
* * * * *
"Now here's a likely-looking poison," Hellman said, half an hourlater.
Casker had recovered completely, except for an occasional twitch ofthe lips.
"What does it say?" he asked.
Hellman rolled a tiny tube in the palm of his hand. "It's calledPvastkin's Plugger. The label reads: WARNING! HIGHLY DANGEROUS!PVASTKIN'S PLUGGER IS DESIGNED TO FILL HOLES OR CRACKS OF NOT MORETHAN TWO CUBIC VIMS. HOWEVER--THE PLUGGER IS NOT TO BE EATEN UNDER ANYCIRCUMSTANCES. THE ACTIVE INGREDIENT, RAMOTOL, WHICH MAKES PVASTKIN'SSO EXCELLENT A PLUGGER RENDERS IT HIGHLY DANGEROUS WHEN TAKENINTERNALLY."
"Sounds great," Casker said. "It'll probably blow us sky-high."
"Do you have any other suggestions?" Hellman asked.
Casker thought for a moment. The food of Helg was obviouslyunpalatable for humans. So perhaps was their poison ... but wasn'tstarvation better than this sort of thing?
After a moment's communion with his stomach, he decided thatstarvation was _not_ better.
"Go ahead," he said.
Hellman slipped the burner under his arm and unscrewed the top of thelittle bottle. He shook it.
Nothing happened.
"It's got a seal," Casker pointed out.
Hellman punctured the seal with his fingernail and set the bottle onthe floor. An evil-smelling green froth began to bubble out.
Hellman looked dubiously at the froth. It was congealing into a globand spreading over the floor.
"Yeast, perhaps," he said, gripping the burner tightly.
"Come, come. Faint heart never filled an empty stomach."
"I'm not holding _you_ back," Hellman said.
The glob swelled to the size of a man's head.
"How long is that supposed to go on?" Casker asked.
"Well," Hellman said, "it's advertised as a Plugger. I suppose that'swhat it does--expands to plug up holes."
"Sure. But how _much_?"
"Unfortunately, I don't know how much two cubic vims are. But it can'tgo on much--"
Belatedly, they noticed that the Plugger had filled almost a quarterof the room and was showing no signs of stopping.
"We should have believed the label!" Casker yelled to him, across thespreading glob. "It _is_ dangerous!"
As the Plugger produced more surface, it began to accelerate in itsgrowth. A sticky edge touched Hellman, and he jumped back.
"Watch out!"
He couldn't reach Casker, on the other side of the gigantic sphere ofblob. Hellman tried to run around, but the Plugger had spread, cuttingthe room in half. It began to swell toward the walls.
"Run for it!" Hellman yelled, and rushed to the door behind him.
* * * * *
He flung it open just as the expanding glob reached him. On the otherside of the room, he heard a door slam shut. Hellman didn't wait anylonger. He sprinted through and slammed the door behind him.
He stood for a moment, panting, the burner in his hand. He hadn'trealized how weak he was. That sprint had cut his reserves of energydangerously close to the collapsing point. At least Casker had madeit, too, though.
But he was still in trouble.
The Plugger poured merrily through the blasted lock, into the room.Hellman tried a practice shot on it, but the Plugger was evidentlyimpervious ... as, he realized, a good plugger should be.
It was showing no signs of fatigue.
Hellman hurried to the far wall. The door was locked, as the othershad been, so he burned out the lock and went through.
How far could the glob expand? How much was two cubic vims? Two cubicmiles, perhaps? For all he knew, the Plugger was used to repair faultsin the crusts of planets.
In the next room, Hellman stopped to catch his breath. He rememberedthat the building was circular. He would burn his way through theremaining doors and join Casker. They would burn their way outsideand....
Casker didn't have a burner!
>
Hellman turned white with shock. Casker had made it into the room onthe right, because they had burned it open earlier. The Plugger wasundoubtedly oozing into that room, through the shattered lock ... andCasker couldn't get out! The Plugger was on his left, a locked door onhis right!
Rallying his remaining strength, Hellman began to run. Boxes seemed toget in his way purposefully, tripping him, slowing him down. Heblasted the next door and hurried on to the next. And the next. Andthe next.
The Plugger couldn't expand _completely_ into Casker's room!
Or could it?
The wedge-shaped rooms, each a segment of a circle, seemed to stretchbefore him