hat came when all
were compounded was a perfect diagram of a flight of four steps,
descending in unequal treads to zero.

Kendall looked at it for long minutes. "That," he said at length, "is
what I expected. There are four degrees of uncertainty, we generated
'Uncertainty of the First Degree,' 'Mass Uncertainty,' when we started.
That, as here shown, takes little energy concentration. Then we
increased the energy concentration and got 'Uncertainty of the Second
Degree,' 'Molecular Uncertainty.' Then I added more power, and reduced
the field, and got 'Uncertainty of the Third Degree'--'Atomic
Uncertainty.' There is 'Uncertainty of the Fourth Degree.' It is barely
attainable with our atostors. It is--utter uncertainty.

"In the First Degree, the laws of mass action fail, the great
broad-reaching laws. In the Second Degree, the laws of the molecules, a
finer organization, break down, and anything can happen in chemistry. In
the Third Degree, the laws of atomic physics break down slowly. The atom
is tough. It is very compact, and we just barely attained the
concentration needed with that apparatus. But--in the Third Degree, when
the Atomic Laws break down into utter uncertainty, the atoms break, and
only hydrogen can exist. That was the blue flame.

"But the Fourth Degree--_there is no law whatsoever_, nothing in all the
Universe can exist. It means--_the utter destruction and release of the
energy of matter_!" Kendall paused for a moment. "We have won, with
this. We need only make up this apparatus--and maybe make it into a
weapon. You know, in the Fourth Degree, nothing in all the Universe
could resist, deflect, or control it, if launched freely, and
self-maintaining. I think that might be done. You see, no law affects
it, for it breaks down the law. Magnetism cannot attract or repel it
because magnetic fields cannot exist; there is no law of magnetic force,
where this field is.

"And you know, Devin, how I have analyzed and duplicated their magnetic
ball-fields. This should be capable of formation into a ball-field.

"We need only make it up now. We will install it in the 'S Doradus' and
the 'Cepheid' as a weapon. We need only install it as an energy source
here. Let us start."

XII

Buck Kendall with a slow smile, looked out of the port in the thick
metal wall. The magnetic shield of the Lunar Fort was washed constantly
with the fires of exploding magnetic bombs. The smile spread broader.
"My friends,"