its own rocky chamber. A place might have been found
beside it for something not too big, but the first man who came down on
the lift would have seen it whether he was looking for it or not.

Shearing pointed. A dark opening pierced the rock at one side. Hyrst
tried to see into it with his mental eyes, but the "fog" was so dense
and bright--

He saw it, an unsubstantial ghostly shadow, but there. A square box some
twenty feet down the tunnel.

Shearing drew a quick sharp breath "Let's go."

They went into the tunnel, crouching, scraping against the narrow sides.

"Look out for booby traps."

"I don't see any--yet."

The box sat in the middle of the tunnel. There was no way to get around
it, no way to see over it without lying on its top and wriggling between
it and the low roof. Hyrst and Shearing shut their eyes.

"I'm not sure, but I think I see a wire. Damn the fog. Can't tell where
it goes--"

* * * * *

Hyrst took cutters from his belt and slithered cautiously over the box.
His heart was hammering very hard and his hand shook so that he had
great difficulty getting the cutters and the wire together. The wire was
attached to the back of the box, very crudely and hastily attached with
a blob of plastic solder. It was not until he had pinched the wire with
the sharp metal cutter-teeth that he realized the plastic was
non-metallic and the wire bare. And then, of course, it was too late.

There must have been a simple energizer somewhere up ahead, still
charging itself from the ample radiation source. The cutters flew out of
Hyrst's hand in a shower of sparks, and in the darkness of the tunnel
ahead there was a sudden wild flare of light, and an explosion of dust.
A shock wave, not too great, hammered past Hyrst's helmet. Shearing
yelled once, a protest broken short in mid-cry. Then they waited.

The dust settled. The brief tremor of the rock was stilled.

In the roof of the tunnel, where the blast had been, a broken dump-trap
hung open, but nothing poured out of it but a handful of black dust.

Hyrst began to laugh. He lay on his belly on top of the box of Titanite
and laughed. The tears ran out of his eyes and down his nose and dropped
onto the inside of his helmet. Shearing hit him from behind. He hit him
until he stopped laughing, and then Hyrst shook his head and said.

"Poor MacDonald."

"Yeah. Go ahead, you can cut the wire now."

"Such a lovely booby trap. But h