Martians tried to destroy the Winship that he, Ychan, would have personal experience of the method. But he would explain. The Earthmen had a weapon the Martians knew nothing about. It destroyed all living things. It killed them by turning them to vapor. Turned upon a space-ship, the Earth-weapon turned its crew to smoke and vapor, and left the space-ship unharmed. Turned upon a planet, the Earth-weapon would make all its vegetation explode, and all its people, and even the fish in its swamps.

Ychan listened. "How?" he asked stolidly.

Joe answered scornfully that he would demonstrate it—so that the Ganymedians would not make fools of themselves and be wiped out. But he would have to take precautions to avoid undue destruction. If he pointed the weapon at the horizon, all living things to the horizon would flash into clouds of vapor.

If he pointed it down to the ground, not only all life immediately below it would burst into steam, but life on the other side of Ganymede would cease to exist over a large area. The Earth-ray would penetrate a planet and destroy life on both sides simultaneously.

Ychan listened with no trace of emotional reaction.

"You show," he insisted.

Joe scowled more deeply still and observed that for his forbearance in not destroying all life for, say, a hundred miles all around him, there would be a price. A small price. But when he had proved the Earth-weapon he would make a demand.

"What?" asked Ychan flatly.

Joe said negligently that he would ask for the useless Martian gadget. Earthmen, he said untruthfully, had earlier models and had been amused by it. But just in case there had been improvements, he would trade a local demonstration instead of a general one for the device. Just the device. He did not care about the Martians.

Then he waited, scowling as deeply as possible to show complete indifference. Ychan made his decision.

"Yes," he said.

It was a bargain and a treaty, because Ganymedians did not lie. They used words as mathematicians use figures. For results.

"All right," said Joe shortly, over his shoulder. "Get going. And you can grin."

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