lsive."

"Have you been doing any more--well, talking?"

"No. Too strenuous both ways. Until a few days before we got back here,
there wasn't even a sign from him. He just about knocked himself out on
that big plasmoid."

"Who else knows about this?" asked Pilch.

"Nobody. I would have told Holati, except he's still mad enough about
having been put into a coma, he might go out and chop the sequoia down."

"Well, it won't go into the report then," Pilch said. "They'd just want
to bother Repulsive!"

"I knew it would be all right to tell you. And here's something else
very interesting that's going on at present."

"What's that?"

"The real hush-hush reason for Mantelish's expedition," Trigger
explained, "is, of course, to scout around this whole area of space with
planetary plasmoid detectors. They don't want anybody stumbling on
another setup like Harvest Moon and accidentally activating another king
plasmoid."

"Yes," Pilch said. "I'd heard that."

"It was Mantelish's idea," said Trigger. "Now Mantelish is very fond of
that sequoia tree. He's got a big, comfortable bench right among its
roots, where he likes to sit down around noon and have a little nap
when he's out here."

"Oh!" said Pilch. "Repulsive's been up to his old tricks, eh?"

"Sure. He's given Mantelish very exact instructions. So they're going to
find one of those setups, all right. And they won't come back with any
plasmoids. But they will come back with something they don't know
about."

Pilch looked at her for a moment. "_You_ say it!"

Trigger's grin widened. "A little green woman," she said.

CONSIDER THE PLASMOIDS....

Ancient living machines that after millennia of stillness suddenly begin
to move under their own power, for reasons that remain a mystery to men.
Holati Tate discovered them--then disappeared. Trigger Argee was his
closest associate--she means to find him. She's brilliant, beautiful,
and skilled in every known martial art. She's worth plenty--dead or
alive--to more than one faction in this obscure battle. And she's
beginning to have a chilling notion that the long-vanished Masters of
the Old Galaxy were wise when they exiled the plasmoids to the most
distant and isolated world they knew....

Printed in U.S.A.

Transcriber's Note:

The following typographical errors in the original text have been
corrected in this eBook:

Chapter 1: "activites" changed to "activities"

Chapter 2: "maker" changed