ir fear of that implacably cold and vicious
brain, but none of them held a picture of him.

They knew no excuses for failure were ever accepted. They knew terrible
punishments were certain to follow when anyone was luckless enough to
incur that monster's displeasure.

But Hanlon shivered, himself, as he saw how clearly those hardened
criminals feared that mysterious man's displeasure. He quailed
momentarily at thought of what would happen to him if he were caught
trying to locate that man and his plot.

Hanlon knew a long moment of utter discouragement. There was so much he
had to know before he could lead the Corps in clearing up this mess.
There had been so many mentions of a "main plot" that he knew this
illegal mining and slavery was but a small part of what was ... what
must be ... going on.

No, he would just have to keep on trying, keep on working. On second
thought, he had done pretty well so far, at that--he felt he had a right
to feel good about that.

But he wasn't done yet, by a whole tankful of fuel.

The problem stayed with him even in sleep, but in the morning he had an
idea.

As soon as he got his crew down into the mine and working, he got out
the frequency-transformer, and called Geck to him.

"Can you find out what is happening on other parts of Guddu?"

The native's answers stunned him.

"Yes, An-yon, all we can mind-talk with any Guddu anywhere. What you
wish to know?"

Chapter 16

The knowledge that these Guddus of Algon were telepathic rocked George
Hanlon back on his heels. That was a thing he had never even imagined.
They were such a simple, almost childlike race, that such an ability was
farthest from his thoughts.

"If you can talk with your minds?" he asked Geck in wonder, "why do you
bother to speak with the voice to each other?"

"Because mind-talk more tiring to we," came the simple explanation. "It
take much of we's forces. Us grow weak after much of them."

"That makes me hesitate to ask you to do any of it, then," the young SS
man said. "I was hoping you could find out for me how many mines are
operated on the planet, and if all of them are using you Guddus as
slaves."

"Oh, yes, An-yon, me know that already," Geck's peculiar little face,
which had become so friendly to Hanlon through long association, broke
out into a smile that was quickly shadowed by sorrow at thought of the
plight of his people. "There is nine mines. Human masters make Guddu
work in all