James Causey

“ Amenth put on the helmet with a feverish haste. Vogel chuckled. Amenth stood motionless. Then as his hand darted toward a stand, Vogel said sharply, "Don't!"
Amenth stared at the gun.
"Take it off!" Vogel's voice was iron.
Amenth slowly took off the helmet. His eyes were golden with tears. "Please," he said.
"Mars or Venus?" Vogel said. "Which?"
"N-neither. You could not grasp the concept. Let me go. Please!"
"Where?" Vogel prodded. "Another dimension?"
"You would call it that," the alien whispered. Hope brightened his face. "You want something? Wealth? Power?" ”

“ From the blue forest, people ran. Beautiful people, with great golden eyes and scarlet tunics. They could have been Amenth's brothers and sisters. They stared, horror and revulsion twisting their faces. They started toward him.
Vogel understood.
If destroying beauty on this world was a crime, then killing ugliness must be a duty. ”

“ He memorized Amenth's address and returned the application.
Vogel always ate lunch in the office with his expediters. That noon two of them got into an argument about the planets.
"I say there is life on Mars," Pete Stone insisted stubbornly. "When the polar ice cap melts, the water runs along the canals and traces of green from growing vegetation can be spotted."
"Which proves nothing," Harvey Lamb yawned. Lamb was chief expediter. "Man couldn't live there, anyway. There's not enough oxygen."
"You would be amazed," Amenth said quietly, "at the adaptability of Man." ”