poised on the edge of the mound, its wings a vibrating blur against the amorphously swirling mist.

From within the mound a companion shape was emerging. The second "wasp" was similar to the poised creature in all respects, but its wings did not appear to be vibrating and from its curving mouth-parts there dangled threadlike filaments of some whitish substance which was faintly discernible against the mist.

The fifth and last plate showed both creatures poised as though for flight, while something that looked like the head of still another wasp was protruding from the summit of the mound.

I passed the plates to Joan without comment. Wonder and exaltation came into her face as she examined them, first in sequence and then haphazardly, as though unable to believe her eyes.

"Life," she murmured at last, her voice tremulous with awe. "Life on Jupiter. Richard, it's—unbelievable. This great planet that we thought was a seething cauldron is actually inhabited by—insects."

"I don't think they're insects, Joan," I said. "We've got to suspend judgment until we can secure a specimen and study it at close range. It's an obligation we owe to our sponsors and—to ourselves. We're here on a mission of scientific exploration. We didn't inveigle funds from the Smithsonian so that we could rush to snap conclusions five hundred million miles from Earth.

"Insectlike would be a safer word. I've always believed that life would evolve along parallel lines throughout the entire solar system, assuming that it could exist at all on Venus, Mars, or on one of the outer planets. I've always believed that any life sustaining environment would produce forms familiar to us. On Earth you have the same adaptations occurring again and again in widely divergent species.

"There are lizards that resemble fish and fish that are lizardlike. The dinosaur Triceratops resembled a rhinoceros, the duck-billed platypus a colossal. Porpoises and whales are so fishlike that no visitor from space would ever suspect that they were mammals wearing evolutionary grease paint. And some of the insects look just like crustaceans, as you know.

"These creatures look like insects, but they may not even be protoplasmic in structure. They may be composed of some energy-absorbing mineral that has acquired the properties of life."

Joan's eyes were shining. "I don't care what they're composed of, Richard. We've got to 

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