appened--at the moment I hardly cared what else Savannah did
to us. I needn't have wasted the mental energy. The decision was made
for me. As I watched, the Atla-Hi button jumped up by itself and the
button for the cracking plant went down and there was some extra bumping
as we swung around.

Also, the violet patch of Atla-Hi went real dim and the button for it no
longer had a violet nimbus. The Los Alamos blue went dull too. The
cracking-plant dot glowed a brighter green--that was all.

All except for one thing. As the violet dimmed I thought I heard Voice
One very faintly (not as if speaking directly but as if the screen had
heard and remembered--not a voice but the fluorescent ghost of one):
"Thank you and good luck!"

CHAPTER 6

_Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that
perhaps he thought little of at the time._

--Thomas de Quincey

"And a long merry siege to you, sir, and roast rat for Christmas!" I
responded, very out loud and rather to my surprise.

"War! How I hate war!"--that was what Pop exploded with. He didn't
exactly dance in senile rage--he was still keeping too sharp a watch on
Alice--but his voice sounded that way.

"Damn you, Pop!" Alice contributed. "And you too, Ray! We might have
pulled something, but you had to go obedience-happy." Then her anger got
the better of her grammar, or maybe Pop and me was corrupting it. "Damn
the both of you!" she finished.

It didn't make much sense, any of it. We were just cutting loose, I
guess, after being scared to say anything for the last half hour.

I said to Alice, "I don't know what you could have pulled, except the
chain on us." To Pop I remarked, "You may hate war, but you sure helped
that one along. Those grenades you dropped will probably take care of a
few hundred Savannans."

"That's what you always say about me, isn't it?" he snapped back. "But I
don't suppose I should expect any kinder interpretation of my motives."
To Alice he said, "I'm sorry I had to slap your burnt fingers, sister,
but you can't say I didn't warn you about my low-down tactics." Then to
me again: "I _do_ hate war, Ray. It's just murder on a bigger scale,
though some of the boys give me an argument there."

"Then why don't you go preach against war in Atla-Hi and Savannah?"
Alice demanded, still very hot but not quite so bitter.

"Yeah, Pop, how about it?" I seconded.

"Maybe I should," he sa