"Only three of these instruments were constructed. But the moment their existence was made known by a few fantastic demonstrations, the City of New Hope began the swerve down the arc of its own self-destruction. It lasted for a year, and ended with the broken wreck you escaped from last night. During that year invasions were launched on the backward nations across the sea with whom months before there had been friendly trade. Civil wars broke out and internal struggles caused the invasions to fall back to the homeland. The instruments were hopelessly lost, but not before the bird machines had even dropped bombs on the City of New Hope itself. The house of the fire metal was broken open to release its death once more. For a hundred years after the end, say our records, the city flamed with light from the destroyed power house. During the first hundred years more and more of our number were born blind because of the sinking fire in the city. At last we moved underground, but it was too late." She rose from her seat. "And so you see, Hama destroyed himself. Today, loyal to Argo, are all the beasts of the air, of the land ... and of the water." "What about the--the three instruments?" Geo asked. "What happened to them?" The blind Priestess turned to him. "Your guess," she said, smiling, "is as good as mine." She turned again and glided softly from the room. When she left, Iimmi said, "Something is fishy." "But what is it?" said Geo. "Well, for one thing," said Iimmi, "we know there is a Hama. From the dream I would say that it's just about the size and organization of this place." "Just how big is this place anyway?" Geo asked. "Want to do some more exploring?" "Sure," he answered. "Do you think she does know about Hama but was just pretending?" "Could be," said Iimmi. They started off down another corridor. "That bit about going into men's minds with the jewels," Iimmi went on. "It gives me the creeps." "It's a creepy thing to watch," said Geo. "Argo used it on Snake the first time we saw her. It just turns you into an automaton." "Then it really is our jewels she was talking about." Stairs cut a white tunnel into the wall before them, and they mounted upward, coming finally to another corridor. They turned down it and for the first time saw recognizable doors in the wall. "Hey," said Iimmi, "maybe one of these goes outside." "Fine," said Geo. "This place is beginning to get me." He pushed open a door and stepped in. Except for the flowing white walls, it duplicated in miniature the basement of the New Edison building. Twin dynamos whirred and the walls were laced with pipes. "Nothing in here," said Iimmi. They tried a door across the hall now. In this one sat a white porcelain table and floor to ceiling cases of glittering instruments. "I bet this is the room your arm came off in," Iimmi said. "Probably," replied Geo.