d the light was too
bright to look into. I went flat and so did the others; I wondered
about solid shells exploding and going wild, but there weren't any.
The light faded, and then it began to grow again.

I put my head up and saw flames. Then I got up and saw the others
rising, too. I turned tail for the jungle. Some of them followed me,
along with some of the first group; order was lost entirely and we
were no more than pieces of a shrieking, delirious, victorious mob. I
headed back for the base.

Behind me the ammunition depot burned brightly. The raid was over.

It had been an unqualified success, of course. The guerrillas had done
the best job of their careers.

So far.

* * * * *

Hollerith was back to the cave before me. Put it down to a short-cut,
or just more practice in the jungle. When I came in he looked
terrible, about a hundred and twelve years old and shrunken. But my
appearance seemed to rouse him a little. He gestured and the others in
the cave--three or four of them--went out. One stood at the entrance.

There was a silence. Hollerith grimaced at me. "You're working for the
Government," he said. It wasn't a question.

I shook my head. "I--"

"Keep it," he said. "James Carson from Ancarta is a cover identity,
that's all. I tell you, I _know_."

He didn't look ready to pull a heater. I waited a second. The silence
got louder. Then I said: "All right. How do you know?"

The grimace again, twisted and half-humorous. "Why, because you got me
recruits," he said. "Because you got me armaments. Because you helped
me."

"Doesn't make sense," I said.

"Doesn't it?" He turned away from me for a second. When he turned back
he looked more like General Rawlinson Hollerith, and less like a
corpse. "You got me fanatics, men who hated the Government."

"Well?"

"They don't think straight," he said. "There isn't room in their minds
for any more than that hatred. And they're democratic, just like the
rest of us. They vote."

"You set that up," I said. "I had nothing to do with it."

He nodded. "I know," he said. "There are places where democracy just
doesn't work. Like an armed force. As long as most of the members
think alike, you're all right. But when a new factor comes into the
picture--why, nobody knows what he's voting for. It becomes a matter
of personal preference--which is no way to run a war."

"All right," I said. "But I got you the men and their arms--"