sonally, rule three hundred trillion people, half of
them of my own race. And yet I tell you that it would be an equal
partnership."

"I don't get it. Why?"

"Because you came to me."

Crownwall shrugged. "So?"

* * * * *

The Vegan reached up and engulfed the end of a drinking tube with his
eating orifice. "You upstart Earthlings are a strange and a frightening
race," he said. "Frightening to the Sunda, especially. When you showed
up in the spaceways, it was decreed that you had to be stopped at once.
There was even serious discussion of destroying Earth out of hand, while
it is still possible.

"Your silly little planet was carefully examined at long range in a
routine investigation just about fifty thousand years ago. There were at
that time three different but similar racial strains of pulpy bipeds,
numbering a total of perhaps a hundred thousand individuals. They showed
many signs of an ability to reason, but a complete lack of civilization.
While these creatures could by no means be classed among the intelligent
races, there was a general expectation, which we reported to the Sunda,
that they would some day come to be numbered among the Servants of the
Emperor. So we let you alone, in order that you could develop in your
own way, until you reached a high enough civilization to be useful--if
you were going to.

"Intelligence is very rare in the Galaxy. In all, it has been found only
fifteen times. The other races we have watched develop, and some we have
actively assisted to develop. It took the quickest of them just under a
million years. One such race we left uncontrolled too long--but no
matter.

"You Earthlings, in defiance of all expectation and all reason, have
exploded into space. You have developed in an incredibly short space of
time. But even that isn't the most disconcerting item of your
development. As an Earthling, you have heard of the details of the first
expedition of your people into space, of course?"

[Illustration]

"_Heard_ about it?" exclaimed Crownwall. "I was _on_ it." He settled
down comfortably on a couch, without requesting permission, and thought
back to that first tremendous adventure; an adventure that had taken
place little more than ten years before.

The _Star Seeker_ had been built in space, about forty thousand
kilometers above the Earth. It had been manned by a dozen adventurous
people, captained by Crownwall, and had headed out on it