"What's the matter," she cried, "don't you have faith in yourselves? Are you afraid to fight with a new weapon?"
The faces turned up toward her.
"Look at that torch!" she commanded. "Now, put it out! All of us together put it out!"
She turned toward the torch, which had been thrust into a fibrous root structure. She half-closed her eyes. Her lips stretched taut; her fingers knotted and unknotted in an agony of concentration.
The flame flickered violently in the still air of the cave, but it did not go out.
"You're not helping me!" Nina cried: "I'm not strong enough alone—none of us are! Please!"
Abruptly, the torch twisted in its base, the wood snapped with the crack of a rifle shot.
The tree-cave was dark.
Nina's voice was spent, triumphant.
"See! Now do you have faith in yourselves? Didn't you feel what Dr. Brill meant by a psi focus? Think of what it will be like to be in a focus of three thousand minds! Are you still afraid?"