o
much terror, in too short a time. He took her chin in his hand and
turned her head to face him. She didn't resist, but her eyes were
shining with tears; tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Take me home, Brion, please take me home."

He could only brush her sodden hair back from her face, and force
himself to smile at her. The moments of time were running out,
faster and faster, and he no longer knew what to do. The examination
had to be made--yet he couldn't force her. He looked for the med box
and saw that Telt had taken it back to the sand car. There might be
something in it that could help--a tranquilizer perhaps.

Telt had some of his instruments open on the chart table and was
examining a tape with a pocket magnifier when Brion entered. He
jumped nervously and put the tape behind his back, then relaxed when
he saw who it was.

"I thought you were the creepie out there, coming for a look," he
whispered. "Maybe you trust him--but I can't afford to. Can't even
use the radio. I'm getting out of here now. I have to tell Hys!"

"Tell him what?" Brion asked sharply. "What is all the mystery
about?"

Telt handed him the magnifier and tape. "Look at that--recording
tape from my scintillation counter. Red verticals are five-minute
intervals, the wiggly black horizontal line is the radioactivity
level. All this where the line goes up and down, that's when we were
driving out to the attack. Varying hot level of the rock and
ground."

"What's the big peak in the middle?"

"That coincides exactly with our visit to the house of horrors!
When we went through the hole in the bottom of the tower!" He
couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Does it mean that...."

"I don't know. I'm not sure. I have to compare it with the other
tapes back at base. It could be the stone of the tower--some of
these heavy rocks have got a high natural count. There maybe could
be a box of instruments there with fluorescent dials. Or it might be
one of those tactical atom bombs they threw at us already. Some arms
runner sold them a few."

"Or it could be the cobalt bombs?"

"It could be," Telt said, packing his instruments swiftly. "A badly
shielded bomb, or an old one with a crack in the skin, could give
a trace like that. Just a little radon leaking out would do it."

"Why don't you call Hys on the radio and let him know?"

"I don't want Granddaddy Krafft's listening posts to hear about it.
This is our job--if I'm right. And