"No," he shouted. "No tunnels there. The water would seep into them."
"Then tell him to watch!"
I stepped back and pressed an attention signal.
"Mr. Hendricks?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Open up with the starboard tube, full power, concentrated beam, at any spot halfway between here and the river. At once."
"At once, sir!"
The ray generators hummed instantly, their note deepening a moment later. The ray bit into the dry, sandy soil, boring steadily into the earth, making an opening over twice the height of a man in diameter.
The fine, reddish-brown dust of disintegration hung swirling above the mouth of the tunnel at first, and then, as the ray cut deeper into the earth, settled quickly and disappeared.