was nothing.

* * * * *

On the ledge, Johnny Retch wiped sweat from his face. From his pockets,
he methodically refilled the almost empty clip of the gun. He looked
down at Gotch, who was sitting up.

"You killed the Jezbro!" Gotch was whispering. His eyes were searching
the sky as if he still did not believe what he had seen happen.

"Sure," Retch answered. "I don't know what the hell it was, but it could
be killed. Anything can be killed, Gotch. Remember that." The sting of
acid crept into his voice. "Get up. We're going on up the ledge."

"By God, Johnny, you can do anything!" Gotch spoke. He rose with
suddenly renewed confidence. "Wait'll we get to them--" He looked up the
ledge toward the mouth of the tunnel.

Effra was seated in the operator's chair in front of the complex
control panel that resembled the key board of a strange organ. She had
been watching an image move in the screen directly in front of her eyes.

This image--it had been that of a great bird--had suddenly vanished.

"The Jezbro was destroyed!" she whispered. "The core of it was struck.
When that happens, the complete projection is torn to pieces!" Her face
was white with strain.

Parker took his eyes off the screen where he had been watching something
that he did not pretend to understand.

"Sometimes they are very difficult to control," Effra continued, her
voice a whisper. "Once set in motion, they seem almost to achieve life
of their own. I did not send the Jezbro against the men on the ground, I
sent it against the man on the ledge, against this Retch. But--" her
voice faltered.

"I saw it get away," Parker said. There was turmoil in his mind,
confusion. He was in a place where miracles came to life. The secret of
the ability to walk on the water lay here in this room. Effra, in swift
sentences had explained to him that the men who walked on the water
carried little pieces of metal in their pockets; pieces of metal which
increased tremendously the surface tension of the water where they
stepped on it. She had also told him that Ulnar, working this equipment,
had _vondeled_ his helicopter, had sent out a tiny Jezbro that had
struck at the ship, wrecking it. The Jezbro, the secret of the men
walking on the water, had come from this room. The striking of the
Jezbro was to Ulnar the act of _vondel_. Even the veil that surrounded
the island was generated here; in the power being generated in the
slowly