Smoke that ran in an unbroken line in a wide arc around the foot of the hills.

Turning from the screen, Colonel Oaken said bitterly, "Destruction. Savage, wanton destruction. Why did you order this, marshal? Are you trying to ruin us?"

"No, to protect you."

"By slashing down the lofios? Captain Louk had obeyed your order to form a line."

"It was unsatisfactory." Dumarest strode across the operations room to where the big contour map stood marked with colored points and lines. One, amber, ran in a short curve before another, blue, which told of the progress they were now making. "Look. If you were an enemy trying to get past, you could do it without trouble. The captain concentrated his forces facing the valleys, but no enemy would take the obvious route. My way is the best, a complete line twenty yards wide, giving clear vision to men and an open field for instruments."

"Rafts would have sufficed."

"No. They would have had to ride too high and maybe miss what we are looking for. Even so, rafts will also be used for general scan." Dumarest turned, impatient. "I know my trade, colonel. This line must be maintained; the truce depends on it."

"The truce." From where he sat at the table, Colonel Stone shook his head. "I'm not belittling what you did, marshal, but how can you be sure they will keep their word? Even while you were in the hills, two villages were destroyed, some of your own men killed. I hate to admit it, but I think that Colonel Oaken has a point. The Ayutha have changed. They have become savage. You should not have canceled our order for the punitive expeditions. A strong reprisal is the best deterrent."

"It is also the best method of creating antagonism."

"Marshal?"

"I warned you about this at the beginning," said Dumarest. "All wars tend to escalate. You hit them, and they will want to hit you. Then you hit them again, harder this time, and get the same in return. If that is the kind of war you want to fight, I want none of it. I find no pleasure in seeing a world tear itself apart."

Colonel Paran said quietly, "We gave the marshal full responsibility while in the field, gentlemen. In any case, the attacks were made before the truce. Also, the destruction is not as bad as it seems; the lofios can be regrown. I suggest we hear his motives before we condemn him."

"Am I on trial?"

"No, marshal, the word was badly chosen."

Perhaps, but it carried the tone of the Council, the criticisms they were eager to make. To Captain Louk Dumarest said, "Disperse the men, as I ordered. Individuals set at twenty-yard intervals, regular watches of two hours on, two off. Set monitoring posts behind the line with scanners aimed toward the hills. No firing; that is essential. In fact, you had better disarm the men on watch."

"Disarm them?" Lome sounded dubious. "Is that wise, sir? They wont like it, and if the Ayutha should attack at night-"

"Guns won't save them," interrupted Dumarest curtly. "But some trigger-happy fool could break the truce. The rafts can be armed in case of emergency, but if anyone opens fire without waiting for orders, he will be court-martialed and shot. I mean that, captain."

Louk swallowed, thinking of Corm, the way he had died. Rumor had exaggerated the incident, forgetting the mercy of the shot, concentrating instead on the captain's disobedience. "Yes, sir."

"And see that my orders are obeyed as given." Dumarest's voice matched the anger on his face. "I want no further compromises. That line should be finished by now, would have been if you hadn't dallied." To a junior officer he said, "What is the weather report?"

"Some cloud, with a high possibility of rain, sir."

"Wind?"

"None, and the air should remain steady."

"You expect the rain when?"

"At nightfall, sir. It should be widespread over the entire lofios area."

"Good." To the waiting colonels Dumarest said, "Now, gentlemen, I am at your service."

They sat at a table in a room paneled with softly grained wood, wine standing beside maps, glasses of water, jugs of ice. Comforts for a heated day. But the comfort was illusory, the meeting more of an inquisition than Dumarest would have liked.

"About Captain Corm," said Stone. "I know his father. He is disturbed by the reports. Did you actually kill him?"

"I shot him to save him pain."

"Couldn't he have been saved?"

"He was burning. We were under attack. Men would have died to bring him to shelter, and we would have saved nothing but a corpse." Dumarest shrugged. "That is a detail. The truce is more important. As I told you, the agreement is that they will not harm any of our people. In return, I gave a similar promise. I believe they will keep their word. I intend to make certain that we do."

"The line," said Paran. "A barrier?"

"A test." Dumarest riffled the papers before him, found the one he wanted. "I ordered Captain Louk to send men to search the ground around those villages that were destroyed. The latest ones. This is their finding. Nowhere could they find any sign that the ground had been disturbed other than by our own people." He looked at their blank faces. "Don't you realize what this means?"

"The Ayutha are savages," said Oaken. "They wouldn't leave tracks."

"We are assuming they are using gas. If so, it must be transported in containers of some kind. Unless they approached actually within the villages, those containers must have been launched by some apparatus. We had men alert, on guard-did they report seeing any of the Ayutha?"

"No," said Paran. "I made a point of questioning each man. They were masked, of course; that is why they survived, but…" He broke off, frowning.

"The Ayutha are close enough to humans-in fact, are human-be to affected by the same gases that we are. They don't have the technology to make respirators. If they released gas, they must have done it from a distance, or some of them would have been affected." Dumarest looked around the table. "No one has ever reported seeing any of the Ayutha at any place which has been attacked," he said deliberately. "No signs were found of any launching apparatus when I searched for them. As far as I can determine, there is only one logical answer. The Ayutha aren't responsible for this trouble at all."

He leaned back, waiting for the explosion, the burst of unthinking protestation, inevitable from men who had firmly made up their minds.

Oaken said, "Are you out of your mind, marshal? Are you telling us that none of this has happened?"

"I'm saying that as far as I know, the Ayutha aren't responsible."

"That's ridiculous!" Oaken scowled. "Just what kind of a deal did you make up in the hills? Did they brainwash you or something?"

Paran said, "Careful, colonel."

"What for? In case he treats me like he did the captain? You heard what he said. All those people, men, women, children, and he says that those savages aren't behind it. They have to be!"

Stone, less explosive, more shrewd, said, "What are you saying, marshal?"

"You heard what I said, colonel." Dumarest glanced at Oaken. "Some of you may not want to hear it-it could be interesting to find out why. In most wars, some people usually manage to make a profit. A war needs an enemy; the Ayutha are convenient Maybe they have to stay the enemy until certain deals are completed."

"I know what you mean, Earl," said Paran grimly. "But, take it from me, nothing like that is going on here."

"As far as you know, colonel," reminded Dumarest. He didn't press the matter; it had served to shock them, to gain their attention. "Look at the evidence. Not one of the original messages says anything about the Ayutha; all they rave about is monsters. Well, we know why: the gas had affected their minds. Add to that the fact that no traces of launching apparatus have been found, that no Ayutha dead were discovered, that when I spoke to them they denied they had ever attacked a village, that monitoring rafts discovered no trace of any moving body of men in the area under attack, and I think we have a very good reason for assuming their innocence."