friends and wives and children in the city and elsewhere. One doesn't
want anything done to _them_, you know. It's terrible to force a human
being out of fifty or sixty years of good life. I'm only forty myself.
_I_ know. But, at the same time, one feels that an example should be
made, because no price is too heavy to pay if--if these people and _all
that they imply_ can be put an end to. Do you quite understand, or would
you be kind enough to tell your men to take the casing off the Statue?
It's worth looking at.'

'I understand perfectly. But I don't think anybody here wants to see
the Statue on an empty stomach. Excuse me one moment.' De Forest called
up to the ship, 'A flying loop ready on the port side, if you please.'
Then to the woman he said with some crispness, 'You might leave us a
little discretion in the matter.'

'Oh, of course. Thank you for being so patient. I know my arguments are
silly, but--' She half turned away and went on in a changed voice,
'Perhaps this will help you to decide.'

She threw out her right arm with a knife in it. Before the blade could
be returned to her throat or her bosom it was twitched from her grip,
sparked as it flew out of the shadow of the ship above, and fell
flashing in the sunshine at the foot of the Statue fifty yards away. The
outflung arm was arrested, rigid as a bar for an instant, till the
releasing circuit permitted her to bring it slowly to her side. The
other women shrank back silent among the men.

Pirolo rubbed his hands, and Takahira nodded.

'That was clever of you, De Forest,' said he.