Venusians placed no value on the stones.

The accumulation of the fortune in quolla stones was not moving at quite the pace he had imagined. The jewels, it appeared, were not to be found in large quantities. They must be painfully searched out in the remotest, most wind-tortured sections of the Desert Rouge.

Succumbing to the usual fit of despondency, Yancey was toying with the notion of abandoning the whole project—returning Selo to Athens and taking a space tramp back to earth—when Brian Daniels stumbled into the humidi-hut.

There had been no visitors in more than three weeks. Daily, Selo's defiant passivity rankled more and more. Having abused her verbally and physically for an hour on that particular day, Yancey had stormed out into the murk and spent a frustrating afternoon in his futile search for quollas.

He staggered back through the veil of red dust, cursing his rotten luck, cursing Selo, cursing Venus and the twisted destiny that had brought him there. Since Venus and destiny were more or less impervious, he had determined to relieve his frustration by beating Selo.

A fine frenzy had been achieved when he stepped through the vac-lock and saw her. She was sitting on the floor with a stranger's head cradled in her lap. The stranger was making light moaning noises and Selo was soothing him with a little crooning sound as she forced water between his blistered lips.

Yancey's fine anger was lost. "Where did he come from?" he growled, towering over Selo and the stranger.

"He is a prospector. He lost his way. Another few hours on the desert and he would die."

Yancey stared down at the stranger. Despite the terribly blistered face, the stubble of a beard, the matted hair, it was apparent that this Earthman was handsome beyond the ordinary. The features were beautifully modeled—eyes set wide apart, generous mouth, firm chin. And, there was also something intangible about the stranger that troubled Yancey. It was an air of quiet self-possession that refused to be denied even while he was in semi-coma. This was a man who had been given by nature all the qualities Yancey Ritter most prized and least possessed.

In the days that followed, Selo never left Brian Daniels' side. It was as if all her life she had waited for someone upon whom she could lavish such care. She nursed him not so much out of his need as out of her own. 

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