"Zoo!" he called. "Get in touch with the chief rat of the ratcatchers and tell him I said those men have clearly ignored my advice. Tell him I said to caution the next men who experiment with that weapon. Tell him to see that they hold the tube next to their bodies, and tell him for the sake of safety to have six men line up behind one another. Better yet, he had better undertake the experiment himself. His men are careless. Like idiots they have been pointing the tube away from themselves and holding the butt near their bodies. Turn off the machine. The sight of those dead men and the smell of blood is offensive." Zitts sat in gloomy silence until the woman spoke again. "Then you'll bring the murderer to justice?" she ventured quietly. Zitts shook his head. "I'm interested in the weapon, not the murderer. Such a weapon is far beyond our science. We have only rays which kill without noise. That weapon makes a terrific bang. Seems far more fitting than silence, especially in murders resulting from hate. We might in another hundred years be able to duplicate it and put them on the market and sell them literally to millions who have a right to expect some entertainment as well as wind from their politicians. When a fellow felt in an ill humor he could destroy a politician with that weapon. The bang of it would immediately cheer him up." * * * * * The woman leaned across the desk and tears came into her eyes. "If you don't catch the man who killed my almost best husband," she sobbed brokenly, "I won't be able to get married more than a couple more times. Suspicion would fall on me and I don't know but two men who would marry a murderess." Zitts softened somewhat. "And if I do catch the murderer?" he said. The woman brightened, blew her nose and brushed away the tears. "I'll be the happiest person in our galaxy," she said, smiling. "I can marry six men tomorrow and probably twelve or fourteen the next day. You don't know how wonderful it will be to have so many husbands that the loss of a few now and then won't matter." Zitts nodded sympathetically. "I can well understand," he said. "But you shouldn't expect me to use my training and intelligence for nothing. After all, I have ninety-six wives to support--partially--that is. Their other husbands contribute a bit now and then." "I could give you a uranium mine," the woman offered. "Uranium? Nonsense. It's used only to flush sewers when they get gummed up. Haven't you anything valuable?" "Platinum." Zitts shook his head. "Used for ballast in deep-sea diving and then dumped in the ocean. Have you any humorous writings, such as an ancient Congressional Record?" "Never heard of anything like that," the woman replied. "Heard once there was some sort of record of congress which was destroyed because so many people died laughing over it."