In silence they studied it intently, using all their
field lore in an attempt to spot what each one was certain must be there
somewhere. But they were all handicapped by their lack of intimate
knowledge of the garden.
"Wait!" Weeks' voice scaled up. "Left hand corner--there!" His pointing
hand broke and shadowed the portion he was calling to their attention.
Ali jumped to the projector and made a quick adjustment.
Plants four and five times life size glowed green on the wall. What Weeks
had caught they all saw now--ragged leaves, stripped stems.
"Chewed!" Dane supplied the answer.
It was only one species of plant which had been so mangled. Other
varieties in the same bank showed no signs of disturbance. But all of
that one type had at least one stripped branch and two were virtual
skeletons.
"A pest!" said Rip.
"But Sinbad," Dane began a protest before the memory of the cat's
peculiar actions of the past weeks stopped him. Sinbad had slipped up,
the hunter who had kept the Queen free of the outr? alien life which came
aboard from time to time with cargo, had not attacked that which had
ravaged the hydro plants.
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