Before the first ship from Earth made a landing on Venus, there was muchspeculation about what might be found beneath the cloud layers obscuringthat planet's surface from the eyes of all observers.One school of thought maintained that the surface of Venus was a jungle,rank with hot-house moisture, crawling with writhing fauna andman-eating flowers. Another group contended hotly that Venus was an ariddesert of wind-carved sandstone, dry and cruel, whipping dust intoclouds that sunlight could never penetrate. Others prognosticated anocean planet with little or no solid ground at all, populated byenormous serpents waiting to greet the first Earthlings with jaws agape.But nobody knew, of course. Venus was the planet of mystery.When the first Earth ship finally landed there, all they found was agreat quantity of mud.There was enough mud on Venus to go all the way around twice, with someleft over. It was warm, wet, soggy mud--clinging and tenacious. In someplaces it was gray, and in other places it was black. Elsewhere it wasfound to be varying shades of brown, yellow, green, blue and purple. Butjust the same, it was still mud. The sparse Venusian vegetation grew upout of it; the small Venusian natives lived down in it; the steam rosefrom it and the rain fell on it, and that, it seemed, was that. Theplanet of mystery was no longer mysterious. It was just messy. Peopledidn't talk about it any more.But technologists of the Piper Pharmaceuticals, Inc., R&D squad found acertain charm in the Venusian mud.They began sending cautious and very secret reports back to the HomeOffice when they discovered just what, exactly was growing in thatVenusian mud besides Venusian natives. The Home Office promptly boughtup full exploratory and mining rights to the planet for a price that wasa brazen steal, and then in high excitement began pouring millions ofdollars into ships and machines bound for the muddy planet. The Board ofDirectors met hoots of derision with secret smiles as they rubbed theirhands together softly. Special crews of psychologists were dispatched toVenus to contact the natives; they returned, exuberant, withtest-results that proved the natives were friendly, intelligent,co-operative and resourceful, and the Board of Directors rubbed theirhands more eagerly together, and poured more money into the PiperVenusian Installation.It took money to make money, they thought. Let the fools laugh. Theywouldn't be laughing long. After all, Piper Pharmaceuticals, Inc., couldrecognize a gold mine when they saw one.They thought. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.