Philip Latham was the nom de plume of Robert S. Richardson, a professional astronomer who also provided technical assistance on movies such as Destination Moon and wrote scripts for the Captain Video television series.

With their supply of canned food running low, Paul and Bruce go hunting, assuming that Venusian animal life would be edible.

They drive the docile creature toward their cave, intending to butcher it when they arrive, but change their decision and keep it as a pet after it saves Frank from a carnivorous plant.

Having brought samples of the tubers and the pear-like fruit that the beast had eaten, Paul and Bruce find them edible and the family begins eating them when their canned food runs out.

Later, after he has a good amount of sleep, Paul's arm heals, seemingly in spite of having been covered by the fast-growing green mold that grows on any and all organic substances.

As all seems lost, star shells and grenades explode in the valley below the cave, and the bat-men, thrown into confusion and distress, flee the scene: the space marines have landed.

With the machine in hand, the spacemen take the Robinsons back to Earth with them: Simmons chooses to stay on Venus, living with the bat-men.

He represents a pharmaceutical company to which Bruce took samples of Venusian life, and he tells the Robinsons that the green mold that was such a nuisance produces an antibiotic more powerful than penicillin.

Other features are the discovery of an enigmatic scientist marooned on Venus some years before – the dangers of the Venusian batmen and their burning ultra-sonic waves – infra-red plants as the main source of oxygen.

This is written in a flip, tangy manner that seems to complement the fantasies which are described, and the scientific basis for the writer's imagination is discussed in an enlightening last chapter."