"Be reasonable!" Bill shouted. He lunged to one side, taking the shut-off valve handle with him. A liquid hissing burst in his ears. He glimpsed a stream of strong-smelling liquid shoot from the well valve, over his head, spearing the Uvan guard with a tremendous splash. Then he shook himself. He could hardly believe what his eyes saw. _The Uvan simply melted under the liquid!_ In less than a minute there was nothing but a lump of resinous substance on the floor and a radium gun in the middle of it. Bill shook his head as though he were suffering from a fantastic form of nightmare generally known as "space jitters." He jammed the shut-off valve back into place without actually accounting for his actions and stumbled out of the shack. "Bill, where have you been?" It was Kitty. "Where have I been? Great Comets, I know the ropes now! Let's get Webster before the Patrol comes." * * * * * "Oh," said Uvan Commissioner Webster as he saw Bill, Kitty and Olé stumble into the parlor of his residence, "I thought you were the Tubby person. Made so much noise. He claims he's an important man--Commissioner of the Fuel Monopoly. Is that right?" "Forget Tubby Castlebottom a moment," said Kitty. "Bill's made a discovery." "A discovery? On Uva? That's impossible," said Webster. "Impossible--nothing!" Bill cut in excitedly. He pushed Webster into a chair. "You know what? There's etheroel on this planetoid. The real stuff. It's drilled and ready to take off. Come on now, give me the lowdown on why those wells are sealed? Why didn't you tell me?" Commissioner Webster stiffened in his chair. His sunny features turned dead white. For a second he gaped at his three visitors, then he noticed that little Olé looked more scared than himself. "Y-Y-You shouldn't have found the wells," he finally stuttered. "Oh, Lord, it's the taboo." "Taboo? You mean you knew about the etheroel wells all this time?" Bill demanded in exasperation. Webster nodded timidly. "Certainly. But I thought you came here merely to get a formula for the synthetic fuel." "They wouldn't give it to me." "No. I didn't imagine they would. But trying didn't hurt," explained Webster. "You see, it's the taboo. The undersurface of Uva is fantastically rich in etheroel reservoirs. When the Spaniards first controlled Uva they exploited the etheroel hand over fist because it was worth its weight in gold. But they were ruthless about it for etheroel, like everything that has an ether-alcohol base, is death to the Uvans." "Dissolves them, eh?" said Bill. Webster shot back a frightened glance. "Yes, the alcohol just tears down their resin bodies. The Spaniards made the mistake of forcing the Uvans to operate the wells. Cheap labor, you know. That's why the government sealed the wells. The Uvans were more valuable as _brain-registers_ for the universe. Alcohol and caviar are the two things these people are never absent-minded about."