crifice," said the king in a leaden voice, "not only our
lives but our self-respect, to try to gain something less than the total
annihilation of Kandar. We shall tell the Mekinese that we will return
to Kandar and form up in space. If they send a small force to accept our
surrender, they shall have it. If they prefer to destroy us, they can do
that also. But we submit ourselves to punishment for having resisted the
original fleet. We admit our guilt. And we beg Mekin not to avenge that
resistance upon our people, who are not guilty."

Bors tried to speak, and could not. There was a sodden, utterly
unresilient stillness in the room, as if all the high officers of the
fleet were corpses and the king himself, though he spoke, was not less
dead.

Then Morgan moved decisively. He moved away from the spot where he had
been engaged in impassioned argument. He took Bors by the arm, and
hustled him through the door.

"Come along!" he said urgently. "Something's got to be done! You have
the knack of thinking of things to do! The king's intentions--"

The door closed behind him and he broke off. He wiped sweat from his
forehead with one hand while he thrust Bors on with the other. They came
to a cabin evidently assigned to him. Gwenlyn waited there.

"Craziness!" said Morgan bitterly. "Craziness! I get the finest group of
Talents that ever existed! I teach them to think! I instruct them! And
they can't think of what is going to happen. And everything depends on
it! Everything!"

"When will the _Sylva_ be back?" demanded Bors.

Morgan automatically looked at his watch. Gwenlyn opened her mouth to
speak. Morgan shook his head impatiently. Gwenlyn was silent.

"My ship-arrival Talent's with the _Sylva_," said Morgan harassedly. "We
sent him to Kandar to find out if the Mekinese fleet's coming there, and
when. It isn't coming here. He said so."

"It'll go to Kandar," said Bors bitterly, "to destroy it. I imagine
we'll go there too, to be destroyed."

"But it's insane!" protested Morgan. "Look! You captured a
passenger-ship off Mekin. Right?"

"Yes."

"You sent it here with all its passengers. Right?"

"Yes."

"One of the passengers said he was a clairvoyant. Hah!" Morgan expressed
the ultimate of disgust. "He was a fortune-teller! He didn't know there
was anything better than that! A fortune-teller! But he's a Talent! He's
a born charlatan, but he's an authentic Talent, and he doesn't know what
that is! He thinks pr