the truth, Tchassen thought; she actually had shot him. The Captain felt a surge of relief and hope. Perhaps he could rely on Tynia, after all. But now it was too late! The blast from the Sergeant's weapon had paralyzed Tchassen's motor control; he was helpless.

The Sergeant, obviously, assumed that Tchassen was dead. Ignoring him, he ordered Tynia to pile the canned food in the back of the sedan. She moved toward him slowly.

"You're the Earthman," she said dully. "And I thought Captain Tchassen—"

"The farce is over, Tynia. You and Tchassen made a fine game of it for a while, but I've been in the service long enough to spot a fake security officer."

"The Captain and I?" she repeated.

"Do I have to draw you a blueprint? You two are in this together. You're both natives."

For a moment she seemed to recover her self-assurance. "So that's how you're going to play it, Sergeant. Just who do you think you'll take in with such nonsense?"

"I'm through batting words around with you, Tynia. Put the food in the car. Help me push the machine out to the road."

"Why bother, Sergeant? If you stay right here, the natives will be along soon enough."

"I'm glad you admit that, Tynia." Briggan laughed sourly. "But it's my duty to get through to the base—just as it's your duty, I suppose, to try to stop me."

"Why do you still want to make me believe that, Sergeant? What difference does it make now?"

Tchassen, paralyzed and unable to speak, suddenly realized the truth. Each of them feared the other. All four survivors had assumed that one of the others had to be an Earthman. We put our faith in machines, he thought; we were too certain that the robot ship couldn't crash simply because something had gone wrong with the beam. Our real trouble is we have no faith in ourselves. None of us was an Earthman; the Earth people had nothing to do with the destruction of the Nevada station.

He wanted desperately to shout that out. After a supreme effort, he was able to make his lips move a fraction of an inch; and that was all.

Tynia put the canned food in the sedan. Briggan waved her to the back of the car with his weapon. He held the beam leveled at her while she pushed the sedan toward the road. The clearing 

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