"Yes," said Calhoun. "If you two talk, I suggest that you do it in whispers. I want to listen, in case the man I killed had friends who'll come looking for him. Did you get his blaster, by the way?" "Yes," said Kim from the darkness across the way. "Good!" said Calhoun. "Keep it. And against all medical ethics, I advise you to use it freely if you find suitable targets. But now, just talk quietly if you can." He settled back. Murgatroyd stirred and cuddled closer against him without wakening. There was the faintest possible murmuring of voices where Kim Walpole and the girl Helen talked wistfully of the possibility of hope. Calhoun felt very lonely, despite the violent activities he foresaw for the morrow. He almost envied Kim Walpole. But he could not have traded places with him. It wouldn't have been a fair trade. Calhoun was quite confident that--via Murgatroyd--the folk in the glade had a very fair chance of living for some time yet. His own chances, considering what he had to do, were more nearly zero. Just about zero, when considered dispassionately. V "Very much of physical science is merely the comprehension of long-observed facts. In human conduct, there is a long tradition of observation, but a very brief record of comprehension. For example, human life in contact with other human lives follows the rules of other ecological systems. All too often, however, a man may imagine that an ecological system is composed only of things, whereas such a system operates through the actions of things. It is not possible for any part of an ecological complex to act upon the other parts without being acted upon, in its turn. So that it is singularly stupid--and singularly common--for an individual to consider human society as passive and unreactive, so that he may do what he pleases without a reaction as energetic as his action, and as well-directed. Moreover, probability--." _Probability and Human Conduct_ Fitzgerald An hour after sunrise Calhoun's shoulder-pack was empty of food. The refugees arose, and they were weak and ravenous. Their respiration had slowed to normal. Their pulses no longer pounded. Their eyes were no longer dull, but very bright. But they were in advanced states of malnutrition, and only now were aware of it. Their brains were again receiving adequate oxygen and their metabolism was at a normal level--and they knew that they were starving. Calhoun served as cook. He trudged to the spring that Helen described and brought back water. While they sucked on sweet tablets from his rations and watched with hungry eyes, he made soup from the dehydrated rations he'd carried for Murgatroyd and himself. He gave it to them as the first thing their stomachs were likely to digest.