godly murderous to me. There are too many holes in that
protection plan of yours. It's only a question of time before they'll
find some way around it, and then--poof--we'll all be dust."

"Things may not be as bad as they seem," answered Crownwall
complacently. "After I got back a few million years, I'm afraid I got a
little careless and let my ship dip down into Vega III's atmosphere for
a while. I was back so far that the Vegans hadn't appeared yet. Now, I
didn't land--or _deliberately_ kill anything--but I'd be mighty
surprised if we didn't find a change or two. Before I came in here, I
asked Marshall to take the ship out and check on things. He should be
back with his report before long. Why don't we wait and see what he has
to say?"

* * * * *

Marshall was excited when he was escorted into the Council Chamber. He
bowed briefly to the President and began to speak rapidly.

"They're gone without trace--_all of them_!" he cried. "I went clear to
Sunda and there's no sign of intelligent life anywhere! We're all alone
now!"

"There, you see?" exclaimed Crownwall. "Our enemies are all gone!"

He looked around, glowing with victory, at the others at the table, then
slowly quieted and sat down. He turned his head away from their accusing
eyes.

"Alone," he said, and unconsciously repeated Marshall's words: "We're
all alone now."

In silence, the others gathered their papers together and left the room,
leaving Crownwall sitting at the table by himself. He shivered
involuntarily, and then leaped to his feet to follow after them.

Loneliness, he found, was something that he couldn't face alone.

--L. J. STECHER, JR.

[Illustration]

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Galaxy Magazine_ June 1960. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Upstarts, by L. J. Stecher

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