she scrambled to rise again a heavy body fell upon her and
seized her arms. A moment later she was surrounded and dragged to her
feet and as she looked around she saw Ghek crawling to his prostrate
rykor. A moment later he advanced to her side.

The hideous face, incapable of registering emotion, gave no clue to
what was passing in the enormous brain. Was he nursing thoughts of
anger, of hate, of revenge? Tara of Helium could not guess, nor did she
care. The worst had happened. She had tried to escape and she had
failed. There would never be another opportunity.

"Come!" said Ghek. "We will return to the tower." The deadly monotone
of his voice was unbroken. It was worse than anger, for it revealed
nothing of his intentions. It but increased her horror of these great
brains that were beyond the possibility of human emotions.

And so she was dragged back to her prison in the tower and Ghek took up
his vigil again, squatting by the doorway, but now he carried a naked
sword in his hand and did not quit his rykor, only to change to another
that he had brought to him when the first gave indications of
weariness. The girl sat looking at him. He had not been unkind to her,
but she felt no sense of gratitude, nor, on the other hand, any sense
of hatred. The brains, incapable themselves of any of the finer
sentiments, awoke none in her. She could not feel gratitude, or
affection, or hatred of them. There was only the same unceasing sense
of horror in their presence. She had heard great scientists discuss the
future of the red race and she recalled that some had maintained that
eventually the brain would entirely dominate the man. There would be no
more instinctive acts or emotions, nothing would be done on impulse;
but on the contrary reason would direct our every act. The propounder
of the theory regretted that he might never enjoy the blessings of such
a state, which, he argued, would result in the ideal life for mankind.

Tara of Helium wished with all her heart that this learned scientist
might be here to experience to the full the practical results of the
fulfillment of his prophecy. Between the purely physical rykor and the
purely mental kaldane there was little choice; but in the happy medium
of normal, and imperfect man, as she knew him, lay the most desirable
state of existence. It would have been a splendid object lesson, she
thought, to all those idealists who seek mass perfection in any phase
of human endeavor, s