On second thought... he could put the house up for sale, to buy time. If he set the price high, buyers would hang back and wait, because the Serjents were supposed to be broke. If the Navy bought the Wart metal soon enough . . . he'd have to take a lower price, but he'd be able to keep the house.

But what did the Belmys have in mind? What would a loan do for them? It would be eating interest- "Wb°* interest?"

"We'd pay fifteen percent until the next midyear, or take the same."

That was high but not out of line. His first niggling suspicion began to look like the truth. "I'll sleep on it," he said.

Wickerwork ran around the inside of the glass bottle and across the center; wickerwork everywhere, but you had to look twice to see it beneath the plants and mud. The mud was at the interstices, held in place by nets. Plants grew from the mud, bearing red and yellow spheres and cylinders. Leafy vines strangled the wickerwork, the mud, and everything else in sight.

It was a jungle with curving corridors through it. Debby felt a sudden terrible homesickness for Carther States . . . but the jungle other childhood was drab compared to the Vivarium.

The old man who watched from within one of the openings was an elderly, undersized jungle giant. In the humid warmth he wore only a loose pair of short pants. His knees and elbows were knobby; his skin was yellow-brown, and there was something funny about his eyes. He watched the growing crowd in some surprise. He said, "Late, Adjeness."

"Zakry, these are customers," Adjeness Swart said firmly. "They've been living without earthlife since Checker knows when."

"Have they." The yellow man brightened. "Well, we can't have that. Carlot Serjent, how good to see you! Adjeness, why don't you show the crew what they've been missing?"

Carlot and the yellow man disappeared into the greenery. Adjeness Swart said, "Clave told me that. No earthlife crops. Is it true?"

"Almost," Debby said. "We've got turkeys."

Raym Wilby guffawed. Adjeness was suppressing a laugh. "Turkeys, stet. Try this." She reached into a jungle of vines and plucked forth a red sphere. She sliced it apart with her knife and offered wedges around.

It was juicy. Its taste was strong. Debby chewed and swallowed, trying to decide if she liked it.

Rather plucked a slender yellow spike from the muck. Adjeness intervened. "Not that. Rather. You have to cook that. Try this. Don't eat the skin." The sphere Adjeness sliced up for him was orange outside and in. Rather bit into a wedge, and his eyes got big.

Being back on Earth would be like this, Debby thought. Alien. She recognized almost nothing.