these native
jewelers do? And didn't you tell me about a clockwork thing they have
at the university here, to show the apparent movements of the sun...."

"That's right," von Schlichten said. "And what they couldn't make,
they could have bought from us; we've sold them a lot of electrical
equipment."

"All right, they could have built an A-bomb," Buhrmann said. "But did
they?"

"We assume they tried to. Gorkrink got back from Nif on the Canberra,
three months ago," von Schlichten said. "If Orgzild decided to build
an A-bomb, he wouldn't give the signal for this uprising until he
either had one or knew he couldn't make one, and he wouldn't give up
trying in only three months. Therefore, I think we can assume that he
succeeded, and had succeeded at the time he sent Gorkrink here to get
that four tons of plutonium we let him have, and, incidentally, to
tell Ghroghrank to pass the word to have Sid Harrington poisoned
according to plan."

"Then why didn't he just use it on us at the start of the uprising?"
Meyerstein wanted to know.

"Why should he? Getting rid of us is only the first step in Orgzild's
plan," Grinell said. "Back as far as geek history goes, the Kings of
Keegark have been trying to conquer Konkrook and the Free Cities and
make themselves masters of the whole Takkad Sea area. Let Konkrook
wipe us out, and then he can move in his troops and take Konkrook. Or,
if we beat off the geeks here, as we seem to be doing, he can bomb us
out and then move in on Konkrook. I think that as long as we're
fighting here, he'll wait. The more damage we do to Konkrook, the
easier it'll be for him."

"Then we'd better start dragging our feet on the Konkrook front,"
Laviola said. "And get busy trying to build a bomb of our own."

Von Schlichten looked up at the big screen, on which the battle of
Konkrook was being projected from an overhead pickup.

"I'll agree on the second half of it," von Schlichten said. "And we'll
also have to set up some kind of security-patrol system against
bombers from Keegark. And as soon as _Procyon_ gets here, we'll have
to send her out to hunt down and destroy those two Boer-class
freighters, the _Jan Smuts_ and the _Kruger_. And we'll have to
arrange for protection of Kankad's Town; that's sure to be another of
Orgzild's high-priority targets. As to the action against Konkrook,
I'll rely on your advice, Them. Can we delay the fall of the city for
any length of time?"

M'zangwe shook his