lled
again, not only white men but his own people. Wolf men living wolves'
lives in the hills. Travis was threatened with that. Yet--up the ladder
of civilization, down the ladder--why did this feverish curiosity ride
him so cruelly now?

"Listen," Jil-Lee, his side padded with bandages, stepped closer--"and
tell me, younger brother, what is it that you seek in these towers?"

"On another world there were secrets of the old ones to be found in such
ancient buildings. Here that might also be true."

"And among the secrets of those old ones," Nolan's voice was still
harsh--"were those which brought us to this world, is that not so?"

"Did any man drive you, Nolan, or you, Tsoay, or you, Jil-Lee, or any of
us, to promise to go beyond the stars? You were told what might be done,
and you were eager to try it. You were all volunteers!"

"Save for this voyage when we were told nothing," Jil-Lee answered,
cutting straight to the heart of the matter. "Yet, Nolan, I do not
believe that it is for more voyage tapes that our younger brother now
searches, nor would those do us any good--as our ship will not rise
again from here. What is it that you do seek?"

"Knowledge--weapons, maybe. Can we stand against these machines of the
Reds? Yet many of the devices they now use are taken from the star ships
they have looted through time. To every weapon there is a defense."

Nolan blinked and for the first time a hint of interest touched the mask
of his face. "To the bow, the rifle," he said softly, "to the rifle, the
machine gun, to the cannon, the big bomb. The defense can be far worse
than the first weapon. So you think that in these towers there may be
things which shall be to the Reds' machines as the bomb is to the cannon
of the Horse Soldiers?"

Travis had an inspiration. "Did not our people lay aside the bow for the
rifle when we went up against the Bluecoats?"

"We do not so go up against these Reds!" protested Lupe.

"Not now. But what if they come across the mountains, perhaps driving
the Tatars before them to do their fighting--?"

"And you believe that if you find weapons in these towers, you will know
how to use them?" Jil-Lee asked. "What will give you that knowledge,
younger brother?"

"I do not claim such knowledge," Travis countered. "But this much I do
have: Once I studied to be an archaeologist and I have seen other
storehouses of these star people. Who else among us can say as much as
that?"

"That is th