I came from a far planet to learn the Earth's secrets. But I found other things, too -- and friends like Beth.

She stared at me thoughtfully. "You know, Marko, I'm a little afraid of you."

"Of me? But why?"

"Well," she hesitated, "it's hard to say. But when a man jumps into a pool and swims so much faster than one of our country's best swimmers, and then picks up that swimmer and throws him fifty feet without the slightest effort . . ."

That was where the trouble started.