rown; some were so immature as to be unrecognizable to
an untrained eye; but from all four helicopters hand-guns snapped and
cracked. Nothing--but _nothing_--was leaving that field of carnage
alive.

"What are you gunners supposed to be doing here?" Garlock asked.

"Oh, the 'copters will be leaving pretty soon--they've got other places
to go. But they won't get them all--some of the hatches are too deep--so
us four gunners will stick around for two-three days to kill the
late-hatchers as they come out."

"I see," and Garlock probed. "There are four cells they won't reach.
Shall I bomb 'em out?"

"I'll ask." The slitted red eyes widened and he sent a call. "Commander
Knahr, can you hop over here a minute? I want you to meet these things
we've been hearing about. They look human, but they really aren't.
They're killers, with more stuff and more brains than any of us ever
heard of."

Another Arpalone appeared, indistinguishable to Tellurian eyes from any
one of the others.

"But why do you want to mix into something that's none of your
business?" Knahr was neither officious nor condemnatory. He simply could
not understand.

"Since you have no concept of our quality of curiosity, just call it
education. The question is, do or do you not want those four
deeply-buried cells blasted out of existence?"

"Of course I do."

"Okay. You've got all of 'em you're going to get. Tell your 'copters to
give us about five miles clearance, and we'll all fall back, too."

They drew back, and there were four closely-spaced explosions of such
violence that one raggedly mushroom-shaped cloud went into the
stratosphere and one huge, ragged crater yawned where once churned
ground had been.

"But that's _atomic_!" Knahr gasped the thought. "Fall-out!"

"No fall-out. Complete conversion. Have you got a counter?"

They had. They tested. There was nothing except the usual background
count.

"There's no life left underground, so you needn't keep this squad of
gunners tied up here," Garlock told the commander. "Before we go, I want
to ask a question. You have visitors once in a while from other solar
systems, so you must have a faster-than-light drive. Can you tell me
anything about it?"

"No. Nothing like that would be any of my business." Knahr and the four
gunners disappeared; the helicopters began to lumber away.

"Well, _that_ helps--I don't think," Garlock thought, glumly. "_What_ a
world! Back to the Main?"

*