THE GASP BROKE UNBIDDEN from his lips. In the din and confusion of Xuerl’s Cosmobar it went unnoticed, even as had gone unnoticed by everyone else the momentary byplay he had glimpsed.
As the newcomer slipped his arm about the drunken man’s shoulder, the first Earthman, turning suddenly, dropped from his hand to the floor a previously concealed something. A silvery, glistening, round something that hit the floor—and bounced!
Four figures reacted immediately, violently, eagerly. The Venusian, the Uranian, the Jovian—like four minds with but a single thought they formed a wall of flesh around the drunken one. The other Earthman’s hand leaped out greedily to catch the bouncing blob on the rebound. But in vain. The drunk had retrieved the object, shoved it into a pocket.
But Chip Warren kne
