His legs were stiff and galled with saddle sores. After his feet were untied, getting down was an effort and he almost fell. A door opened and Jason went in. It took his eyes some moments to get used to the light, until he could make out the man on the bed before him.

“Come over here and sit down.” The voice was full and strong, accustomed to command. The body was that of an invalid. A blanket covered him to the waist, above that the flesh was sickly white, spotted with red nodules, and hung loosely over the bones.

There seemed to be nothing left of the man except skin and skeleton.

“Not very nice,” the man on the bed said, “but I’ve grown used to it.” His tone changed abruptly. “Naxa said you were from off-world. Is that true?”

Jason nodded yes, and his answer stirred the living skeleton to life.

The head lifted from the pillow and the red-rimmed eyes sought h with a desperate intensity.

“My name is Rhes and I’m a… grubber. Will you help me?”

Jason wondered at the intensity of Rhes’s question, all out of proportion to the simple content of its meaning. Yet he could see no reason give anything other than the first and obvious answer that sprang to Ii lips.

“Of course I’ll help you, in whatever way I can. As long as it involved no injury to anyone else. What do you want?”

The sick man’s head had fallen back limply, exhausted, as Jason talked. But the fire still burned in the eyes.

“Feel assured-I want to injure no others,” Rhes said. “Quite the opposite. As you see, I am suffering from a disease that our remedies won’t not stop. Within a few more days I will be dead. Now I have seen. the city people… using a device, they press it over a wound or animal bite. Do you have one of these machines?”

“That sounds like a description of the medikit.” Jason touched the button at his waist that dropped the medikit into his hand. “I have one here. It analyzes and treats most…”

“Would you use it on me?” Rhes broke in, his voice suddenly urgent “I’m sorry,” Jason said. “I should have realized.” He stepped forward and pressed the machine over one of the inflamed areas on Rhes’s chest The operation light came on and the thin shaft of the analyzer probe slid down. When it withdrew the device hummed, then clicked three times as three separate hypodermic needles lanced into the skin. Then the light went out.

“Is that all?” Rhes asked, as he watched Jason stow the medikit bag in his belt.

Jason nodded, then looked up and noticed the wet marks of tears the sick man’s face. Rhes became aware at the same time and brush at them angrily.