"Tell me," he said, still watching the sky, "what will the Hawks hunt after they get all the watchbirds?" "Huh?" Macintyre said. "Why--" "Just to be on the safe side, you'd better design something to hunt down the Hawks. Just in case, I mean." "You think--" [Illustration] "All I know is that the Hawks are self-controlled. So were the watchbirds. Remote control would have been too slow, the argument went on. The idea was to get the watchbirds and get them fast. That meant no restricting circuits." "We can dope something out," Macintyre said uncertainly. "You've got an aggressive machine up in the air now. A murder machine. Before that it was an anti-murder machine. Your next gadget will have to be even more self-sufficient, won't it?" Macintyre didn't answer. "I don't hold you responsible," Gelsen said. "It's me. It's everyone." In the air outside was a swift-moving dot. "That's what comes," said Gelsen, "of giving a machine the job that was our own responsibility." * * * * * Overhead, a Hawk was zeroing in on a watchbird. The armored murder machine had learned a lot in a few days. Its sole function was to kill. At present it was impelled toward a certain type of living organism, metallic like itself. But the Hawk had just discovered that there were other types of living organisms, too-- Which had to be murdered. --ROBERT SHECKLEY Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _Galaxy Science Fiction_ February 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.