In silence the scientists filed from their seats. Jonathan caught sight of Adatha Za among the Zarathzan delegates, and ran to her. Her hand nestled warmly in his. She flashed her dark eyes at him and smiled. "I'm more out of place here than an Atheist in church," he said. "Stick to me. I still have to get my bearings." Her fingers tensed on his, squeezing. He heard her whispered, "I will." The proving grounds lay semi-circular behind a great green spread of lawn. At the north end of the vast field an arc of white marble terraces lifted rosy columns to the sky. Below the pillars stretched marble benches, now rapidly filling with emissaries. The Moratoyons marched to a gleaming gun set in concrete in the center of the dusty field behind the lawn. The gun shone a queer white, with two red domes surmounting its breech, and fitted on either side with knobs and levers. It quivered and gleamed in the heat haze that shifted over the proving sands. Jonathan felt Adatha Za press against him with thigh and shoulder. She choked a whisper to his ears, "It is their atom-gun. It cannot be compared with some others we have seen, but if they've improved it--" her voice broke with a soundless sob. "We hope it may work. But we are--afraid." Jonathan could almost feel the anxiety and hope around him like a living thing. From the somewhat transparent thought beings of Sallarsee to the robotmen of Kankang, each sat watchful; grim, intent. Those who had lips tensed them to thin lines. Those who had eyes narrowed them expectantly. The others floated or stood, quiescent. The Moratoyons on the field moved swiftly. They clamped brakes and levers down and locked them; spun wheels and twisted dials. From the steel and cement cradle where it rested, the great cylinder of dull white metal lifted its blunt nose slowly, almost cautiously, and aimed it at the sky. "It shoots atoms supercharged with light-photons," whispered Adatha Za. The chief scientist of all Moratoyo paused and looked at Shar Bytu, who nodded. The Moratoyon whirled, shouting harshly, watching his men leap for the firing dials. One after another the dials spun. The firing pin was punched. "God!" choked Jonathan hoarsely, staring in numb horror. Where once the gun stood bright and shining there was a faint red mist that hung close to earth, beating bloodily in the flood of the arc carbon-dioxide lamps as though welling with life. Then it began to dissipate as a faint breeze wafted across the field. There was a little hole in the ground, where the gun had been. Jonathan became aware slowly of Adatha Za's hand that clung like a vise about his left wrist. He looked at her, saw her eyes convulsively closed; saw two tears trickling from beneath her long dark lashes. Her moist red mouth trembled as she whispered, "They all fail. All of them. Like that. One moment they are here. Then they are gone. It is almost as if they destroyed themselves."