"And then what?" sneered Kingston. "It seems to me that your suggestion is the beginning of the end."
"Not at all. Once we establish the possibility beyond a doubt, we can so very easily rotate the hunk of atomic fire back into Earth Two again."
Kingston thought for a moment. Then he nodded. "We must move lightning fast," he said sharply. "Because I will hazard a bet that Earth Two considered the idea of getting rid of their atomic fire by sending it through the space resonator. And rejected it because their own Earth Two was badly treated by the original fire. After all, there's no use in staying with a partly ruined, semi-radioactive Earth Two when Earth One, complete and unharmed, lies like a ripe apple for them to pluck."
Maddox nodded. "It will have to be quick," he said. "For either one of them is quite capable of turning the stuff this way once they suspect."
Kingston turned to the kinescope screen and scowled at Virginia and Bronson.
"There," he said, "are two of the four or five people who have within their grasp the truth of the matter—and they are the two who have sufficient imagination to reason it out!"
"And once she kills him that will leave only her!"
Maddox nodded idly and began to set up equipment, saying, "No time like the present."
"For what?"
"I'm interested in knowing whether the atomic fire will burn Earth Three as well as Earth Two."