o
sound, no sign of any projectile ... ray-gas ... or whatever might have
issued in answer to his finger movement. But the bush--the bush was no
more!

A black smear made a ragged outline of the extinguished branches and
leaves on the rock which had stood behind. The earth might still enclose
roots under a thin coating of ash, but the bush was gone!

"The breath of Naye'nezyani--powerful beyond belief!" Buck broke their
horrified silence first. "In truth evil is here!"

Jil-Lee raised his gun--if gun it could be called--aimed at the rock
with the bush silhouette plain to see and fired.

This time they were able to witness disintegration in progress, the
crumble of the stone as if its substance was no more than sand lapped by
river water. A pile of blackened rubble remained--nothing more.

"To use this on a living thing?" Buck protested, horror basing the doubt
in his voice.

"We do not use it against living things," Travis promised, "but against
the ship of the Reds--to cut that to pieces. This will open the shell of
the turtle and let us at its meat."

Jil-Lee nodded. "Those are true words. But now I agree with your fears
of this place, Travis. This is a devil thing and must not be allowed to
fall into the hands of those who--"

"Will use it more freely than we plan to?" Buck wanted to know. "We
reserve to ourselves that right because we hold our motives higher? To
think that way is also a crooked trail. We will use this means because
we must, but afterward...."

Afterward that warehouse must be closed, the tapes giving the entrance
clue destroyed. One part of Travis fought that decision, right though he
knew it to be. The towers were the menace he had believed. And what was
more discouraging than the risk they now ran, was the belief that the
treasure was a poison which could not be destroyed but which might
spread from Topaz to Terra.

Suppose the Western Conference had discovered that storehouse and
explored its riches, would they have been any less eager to exploit
them? As Buck had pointed out, one's own ideals could well supply
reasons for violence. In the past Terra had been racked by wars of
religion, one fanatically held opinion opposed to another. There was no
righteousness in such struggles, only fatal ends. The Reds had no right
to this new knowledge--but neither did they. It must be locked against
the meddling of fools and zealots.

"Taboo--" Buck spoke that word with an emphasis they could a