"Weapon? What weapon? The only kind of weapon I've got is my Daisy B-B gun, and that's no secret. Mr. Jones, next door, found out about it yesterday when I shot out his front room window. Boy, was he sore!" Kir-Um nodded knowingly at Harl and said, in an aside: "He's trying to mislead us. But he won't succeed. The truth will out." Harl leaned forward to try his hand at the cross-examination. "You know very well what weapon we mean, creature. You have kept your secret well, but now you must relinquish it. Do not try to delude us with fanciful stories and false denials." "Somebody's been feeding you a line, chum," Joe laughed. "Your trolley's jumped the track. Go on back to your cage, pa, and dream up another one. You bore me." The Martians realized the youth's mental barrier was going to be more difficult to break through than they had anticipated. The situation called for tact, yet the amount of time left to them necessitated a direct attack. Kir-Um summoned all the powers of concentration at his command and slowly, but surely, forced Joe's mind into a state of passiveness. Satisfied, at last, the Earthling would give direct replies to his questions, Kir-Um once more took over the interrogating duties. "You cannot deceive us, boy," he began. "A few days ago, you wrote a letter to Earth's great science center, _Galactic Ventures_, I believe it is. In this letter, you stated you possessed a secret weapon, powerful enough to destroy this whole planet. You did not divulge the details of this invention, but promised dire happenings to anyone unfortunate enough to have this weapon directed upon them. We want the plans of this amazing contrivance and you will do well to place them in our hands, without delay." "Oh, that," Joe's voice came dull and emotionless. "That's just a joke. Just something I dreamed up to give the ed. a laugh." Harl and Kir-Um didn't know what a 'laugh' was, but they did know that they were finally making some progress. A meaningful glance passed between them and they silently congratulated themselves for uncovering the genius' secret in such short order. "And these _Jokes_, creature," Harl spoke, "does anyone beside yourself possess them?" * * * * * The Martians feared perhaps this strange scientist had already distributed his weapon among his fellowmen, in preparation to resist the coming attack. Joe's next revelation immediately justified their fears and shocked them to the point of frustration. "Sure. All the stf. fans have their little jokes, and they never miss a chance to use them on some dumb ninny. Once I saw the _Misled Biped_ pull a joke on a guy and he nearly went into epileptic fits. Of course, it was a low-grade joke, or it would have laid him out cold as a mackeral. You better never meet up with a fan when he's in a joking mood, 'cause they don't have a bit of mercy and he'd probably play you till you busted wide open."