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simple. The Pacific coast Japanese, Chinese, and the like
    did not fit into the pattern of serfs and overlords-particularly the half-breeds.
    They were a danger to the stability of the pattern. With cold logic they were
    being hunted down and killed.
    Thomas listened to Frank's story. "When I got home they were dead-all
    of them. My little Shirley, Junior, Jimmy, the baby-and Alice." He put his face
    in his hands and wept. Alice was his wife. Thomas remembered her as a
    brown, stocky woman in overalls and straw hat, who talked very little but
    smiled a lot.
    "At first I thought I would kill myself," Mitsui went on when he had
    sufficient control of himself, "then I knew better. I hid in an irrigation ditch for
    two days, and then I got away over the mountains. Then some whites almost
    killed me before I could convince them I was on their side."
    Thomas could understand how that would happen, and could think of
    nothing to say. Frank was damned two ways; there was no hope for him.
    "What do you intend to do now, Frank?"
    He saw a sudden return of the will to live in the man's face. "That is why I
    will not let myself die! Ten for each one"-he counted them off on his brown
    fingers-"ten of those devils for each one of my babies-and twenty for Alice.
    Then maybe ten more for myself, and I can die."
    "Hm-m-m. Any luck?"
    "Thirteen, so far. It is slow, for I have to be very sure, so that they won't
    kill me before I finish."
    Thomas pondered it in his mind, trying to fit this new knowledge into his
    own purpose. Such fixed determination should be useful, if directed. But it
    was some hours later before he approached Mitsui again.
    "How would you," he asked gently, "like to raise your quota from ten to a
    thousand each-two thousand for Alice?"

    CHAPTER THREE
    The exterior alarms brought Ardmore to the portal long before Thomas
    whistled the tune that activated the door. Ardmore watched the door by
    televisor from the guard room, his thumb resting on a control, ready to burn
    out of existence any unexpected visitor. When he saw Thomas enter his
    thumb relaxed, but at the sight of his companion it tightened again. A
    PanAsiani He almost blasted them in sheer reflex before he checked himself.
    It was possible, barely possible, that Thomas had brought a prisoner to
    question..
    "Major! Major Ardmore! It's Thomas."
    "Stand where you are. Both of you."
    "It's all right, Major. He's an American. I vouch for him."
    "Maybe." The voice that reached Thomas over the announcing phone
    was still grimly suspicious. "Just the same-peel off all of your clothes, both of
    you." They did so, Thomas biting his lip in humiliation, Mitsui trembling in
    agitation. He did not understand it and he felt trapped. "Now turn around
    slowly and let me look you over," the voice commanded.
    Having satisfied himself that they were unarmed, Ardmore told them to
    stand still and wait, then called Graham on the intercommunication circuit.
    "Graham!"
    "Yes, sir."
    "Report to me at once in the guard room."
    "But, Major, I can't. Dinner will be-"
    "Never mind dinner! Move!"
    "Yes, sir!"
    Ardmore pointed out the situation to him in the screen. "You go down
    there and handcuff both of them from behind. Secure the Asiatic first. Make
    him back up to you, and watch yourself. If he tries to jump you, I may have to
    wing you, too."
    "I don't like this, Major," Graham protested. "Thomas is all right. He
    wouldn't be up to any hanky-panky."
    "Sure, man, 1 know he's all right, too. But he may be drugged and under
    control. This set-up could be a Trojan Horse gag. Now get down and do as
    you are told. "
    While Graham was gingerly carrying out his unwelcome assignment and
    making himself, in fact, eligible for a Congressional Medal which he would
    never receive, for his artist's imagination perceived too clearly the potential
    danger and forced him to call up courage for the task-Ardmore phoned
    Brooks.
    "Doctor, can you drop what you are doing?"
    "Why, perhaps I can. Yes, I may