"Knowing Shorty, I'd guess the latter," Bob soothed. "He was sometimes that way with the rest of us, but we didn't take him very seriously. If he got too bumptious it was usually easy enough to come up with a put-down hard enough to hold him for three or four weeks. I thought he'd pretty well outgrown that, though, the last time I was home."

"Maybe he has, with you. Putting him down, doesn't work for me. He knows I did a good job with the kayak, he's seen it; he's seen lots of people use it, but whenever he sees it or me he makes remarks. I bet he did when you saw him today."

"Very vague ones. As I said, "I'll make up my mind when I see the boat. If you, and other people have been using it for a year and a half I won’t worry about the thing itself, but I still have to judge whether it's big enough for what I need." "What's that? Or don't you think I'd understand?" "Why shouldn't you? I have to look for some special things. One of them is, or used to be, out on one of the reef islands, Apu. Anything that'll carry me there will do. The other is under water, almost certainly outside the reef, and I'll need a boat that I can dive from when my equipment gets here." "You mean pumps and that sort of thing? My kayak can't carry anything like that."

"No, I mean free diving with personal mask and air tank. You may have read about it."

"I have. You're getting that?"

"When I can afford it, unless Dad can come through earlier. I'm short on paydays so far."

"That should be fun. I've thought of doing it ever since I heard about it. Can I go with you?" Bob had expected the question, of course, but had failed to plan a very farsighted answer.

"You mean alternate dives with me, or something like that? I can afford only one outfit."

Jenny stopped and looked at him again, this time with her lips pursed into a schoolmarmish expression.

“I realize that Shorty Malmstrom must have been named from his brains, not his height, but I bet even he wouldn't think of going free diving alone. Do you have more lives than money, or what? Maybe I shouldn't trust you with my boat, after all."

Even the Hunter was startled. Bob was dumb- founded. Incredibly, neither of them had thought of this particular safety question, in spite of the Hunter's awareness of the human tendency to crowd the experience limit, and also in spite of his fear of what that tendency might do to his host-and his knowledge of what it had done, luckily for the Hunter himself, to his host's father.

The simple insanity of Bob's working under water with only the Hunter with him had never crossed either of their minds; the fact was that there was nothing the Hunter could do about drowning. He could make a fairly effective gill system out of his own tissue, but there was only four pounds of that and a human being needs a lot of oxygen. It was possible that the Hunter could keep his host alive for a time under water, but probably not conscious and certainly not active, especially in warm water. The solubility of gases, including oxygen, goes down with rising temperature.

"You're right!" Bob gasped. "We'd forgotten all about that-at least," he tried to recover what he thought was a slip, and hesitated a moment before he saw the way-"at least I forgot; maybe Dad thought of it and didn't say anything. We will have to get two sets-and it'll have to be only two, at first. We can't put off the search until I can afford more."

"Then it's important," Jenny said.

"Yeah. Life and death, to be trite." The Hunter was almost certain that his host was by now convinced of the need for more help, though nothing more had been said on the subject since the discussion at midday, The alien had convinced himself that Jenny would be a good recruit. He had not intended to exert any more pressure on his human companion; but couldn't resist at this point.

"You're going to have to tell her," he vibrated into Bob's ears.

"She'll think I'm crazy as Shorty. We'll hold off just a little." The vocal cords just barely oscillated, but the alien was ready for the message. He couldn't shrug Bob's shoulders, but was tempted to try.

Aloud, Bob said to Jenny, "I think I can tell you more a little later. It's not entirely my own secret." This was technically true, but once again misleading enough to bother the Hunter slightly. "I'll tell you a little-my own part of it. There's a problem which will kill me if it isn't solved fairly soon. Your father knows about it, since it's partly medical, but I don't want to tell you details until I've talked to him and one other person. I hope you don't mind."

"I do, a little, but I won't fight it. Do your own folks know?"

"My parents do. Not Silly."

"All right I'm curious enough to light matches between your toes, but I guess I can wait. I warn you I'll pry anything I can out of Dad. Of course he doesn't talk about patients' affairs, but there are ways."

"Do your best." Bob was actually pleased with the answer. He would be delighted if she could actually get the story from some source other than himself; that way, whether she believed it or not, there would at least be no doubts about his own sanity. The Hunter hadn't thought of that side of the question, but was pleased at the general trend of affairs.

Bob wondered briefly whether he should try to get word to the doctor before his daughter reached him, but decided there was nothing to be gained. Medical ethics would of course tend to keep Seever quiet; if his daughter was smart enough to get through that barrier, she would presumably be smart enough to be helpful to him and the Hunter.

The boat looked all right. It was different enough from most of those on the island to show the Hunter and his host why Malmstrom, not in the habit of deep or thoughtful analysis of the things he saw, might consider it funny. Small and double-ended, it consisted essentially of a canvas-covered wooden frame. Consequently, it was very light.

“It's called a kayak, in case you've never seen anything like it.” Jenny spoke rather nervously as they looked it over, she was clearly afraid that Bob would react as Malmstrom had. "I made it from a kit I got by mail from the States. It's good and steady, and I've had it outside the reef plenty of times with no trouble."

"It looks fine to me," Bob assured her. "One thing -it's light, and must ride pretty high when it's empty or has only one passenger. Could a diver climb back aboard without capsizing it?"

"Sure. I swim from it a lot, and have no trouble getting back in. It's a trick, but I'll show you."

"Okay. Then if you'll let me use it, I'll look over Apu tomorrow. I'd do it right now if we had more than an hour or so to sunset."

"May I come with you? Or don't you want me to see what you're looking for?"

"Even money she'll know by then, anyway," the Hunter muttered to his host. The latter hesitated, looking thoughtfully at the young woman. She looked back at him steadily; the nervous, defensive attitude had disappeared.

"Is that a condition for using the boat?" Bob asked at length. She shook her head negatively, confirming the Hunter's opinion of her intelligence. As Bob fell silent again for several seconds, she removed the broad-brimmed hat which shielded her rather pale skin from the sun, and let her mahogany-red hair blow free. To do her justice, she was not consciously using the good looks of which she was fully aware in an effort to influence the young man's decision. This was just as well, since neither Bob nor the Hunter was giving the slightest thought to that aspect of the matter. Her five feet eight inches of height and one-hundred-and-twenty-plus pounds of weight had probably never produced less effect on a male observer.

"All right," Bob said at last. "The sun will be up by a quarter to seven. Can you be here by then?"

"Sure. Do you want to try out the boat, now?"