ding inland. Video-cameras here and here ... comb the whole sector
inch by inch if we have to. After all, we have plenty of time and
manpower."

Karara laughed softly. "Manpower--always manpower, Ross? But there is
woman-power, too. And we have perhaps even sharper sight. But this is a
good idea, Gordon. Let me see--" she began to tell off names on her
fingers, "PaKeeKee, Vaeoha, Hori, Liliha, Taema, Ui, Hono'ura--they are
the best in the water. Me ... you, Gordon, Ross. That makes ten with
keen eyes to look, and always there are Tino-rau and Taua. We will take
supplies and camp here on this island which looks so much like a finger
crooked to beckon. Yes, somehow that beckoning finger seems to me to
promise better fortune. Shall we plan it so?"

Some of the tight look was gone from Ashe's face, and Ross relaxed. This
was what Gordon needed--not to be sitting in here going over maps,
reports, reworking over and over their scant leads. Ashe had always been
a field man; and the settlement work had been stultifying, a laborious
chore for him.

When Karara had gone Ross dropped down on the bunk against the side
wall.

"What _did_ happen here, do you think?" Half was real interest in the
mystery they had mulled over and over since they had landed on a Hawaika
which diverged so greatly from the maps; the other half, a desire to
keep Ashe thinking on a subject removed from immediate worries. "An
atomic war?"

"Could be. There are old radiation traces. But these aliens had, I'm
sure, progressed beyond atomics. Suppose, just suppose, they could
tamper with the weather, with the balance of the planet's crust? We
don't know the extent of their powers, how they would use them. They had
a colony here once, or there would have been no guide tape. And that is
all we are sure of."

"Suppose"--Ross rolled over on his stomach, pillowed his head on his
arms--"we could uncover some of that knowledge--"

The twitch was back at Ashe's lips. "That's the risk we have to run
now."

"Risk?"

"Would you give a child one of those hand weapons we found in the
derelict?"

"Naturally not!" Ross snapped and then saw the point. "You mean--_we_
aren't to be trusted?"

The answer was plain to read in Ashe's expression.

"Then why this whole setup, this hunt for what might mean trouble?"

"The old pinch, the bad one. What if the Reds discover something first?
They drew some planets in the tape lottery, remember. It's a seesaw
between us-