never be
extinguished, can never be swallowed up again in the primeval slime.

"There is nothing more that I can learn from you--nothing that I can
teach you at this stage of your evolution. I have but one message to
give you, one thought to leave with you--forge on! You are on the
path, the stars are over you, their light is flashing into your souls
the slogan of the Federated Suns beyond the frontiers of your little
warring worlds. Forge on!"

The Voice died out like the chiming of a great bell receding into
immeasurable distance. The supercilious tones of the professor had
yielded to the sweetness and the light of the Greater Mind whose
instrument he had momentarily become. It was charged at the last with
a golden resonance that seemed to echo down vast spaceless corridors
beyond the furthermost outposts of time.

* * * * *

As the Voice faded out into a sacramental silence, the strangely
assorted throng, moved by a common impulse, lowered their heads as
though in prayer. The great globe pulsed and shimmered throughout its
sentient depths like a sea of liquid jewels. Then the tentacle that
grasped the professor drew him back toward the scintillating nucleus.
Simultaneously another arm reached out and grasped Bill Jones, who,
during the strange lecture, had ceased his wooden soldier marching and
had stood stiffly at attention.

The bodies of both men within the nucleus were encircled once more by
the single current. From it again put forth the tentacles, cupping
their heads, but the smokelike essence flowed back to them this time,
and with it flowed a tiny threadlike stream of violet light. Then came
the heaving motion when the shimmering currents caught the two men and
tossed them forth unharmed but visibly dowered with the radiance of
more abundant life. Their faces were positively glowing and their eyes
were illuminated by a light that was surely not of earth.

Then, before the very eyes of the marveling people, the great globe
began to dwindle. The jeweled lights intensified, concentrated,
merged, until at last remained only a single spot no larger than a
pin-head, but whose radiance was, notwithstanding, searing,
excruciating. Then the spot leaped up--up into the heavens, whirling,
dipping and circling as in a gesture of farewell, and finally soaring
into invisibility with the blinding speed of light.

* * * * *

The whole wildly improbable