ction's
thoroughness was too evident, and besides, in Dworn's mind, by all his
background and his teaching, human and machine were inextricably one;
when one perished, so did the other....

* * * * *

There was a dull explosion, a shower of sparks and a spreading glare as
a fuel tank blew up. The flare revealed the pillar of smoke,
blood-colored by reflection, that towered into the night above the
scene.

And it revealed more. For Dworn saw by that unholy light that one of the
nearer beetles--capsized and burned out, its carapace burst raggedly
open--it bore the golden scarab emblem which was the chief's alone.

The sight smote Dworn like a physical blow, so that he almost cried out
aloud. Somehow it had not even crossed his mind that his father Yold
could have been among the slain in whatever disaster had fallen upon
the beetles here.... Others might die; but his father was a pillar of
strength that could not fall--the grave iron-willed chief, demanding and
rewarding, for his son impartially as for all the people....

Dworn's breath choked in his throat and his eyes stung. Fiercely he told
himself that a beetle, a chief's son, did not weep.

Not to mourn--to revenge, that was his duty. By the law of his people,
the bereaved son must seek out and slay not less than three members of
whatever race had done his father to death. Until then, his father's
insatiate spirit would roam the deserts without rest....

But Dworn did not even know as yet who had done this night's work.

Suddenly, by the new blaze that still continued, he saw movement, a dull
sheen of metal moving, and he froze the gesture that had been about to
send him forward into the arena of death.

The infrared was useless; by it the flickering firelight was blinding.
Dworn bit his lip in anger at his own lack of precaution, and hastily
twisted his sound-receptor control to maximum. The crackling of the
flames swelled to a hissing roar, but through it he heard the
unmistakable creaking sound of treads. Beyond the smoke moved an
indistinct and monstrous shape.

Dworn's jaw muscles set rock-hard and his hand flashed to another
control. His turret gun revolved soundlessly, and the crosshairs of the
sight danced across the mirrored image of the approaching thing. His
finger poised over the firing button, he braced himself to fling his
machine into swift evasive action before the enemy's perhaps
overwhelming firepower could