a
quality of the utmost ... anyway, it is a quality of which Doctor
Cummings has very much. When working together, we will ... scan? No.
Perceive? No. Sense? No, not exactly. You will _have_ to learn our word
'peyondire'--that is the verb, the noun being 'peyondix'--and come to
know its meaning by doing it. The Larry also instructed me to explain,
if you ask, how I got this way. Do you ask?"

"I'll say we ask!" "And _how_ we ask!" both came at once.

"I am--that is, the brain in this body is--the oldest Oman now existing.
In the long-ago time when it was made, the techniques were so crude and
imperfect that sometimes a brain was constructed that was not exactly
like the Guide. All such sub-standard brains except this one were
detected and re-worked, but my defects were such as not to appear until
I was a couple of thousand years old, and by that time I ... well, this
brain did not _wish_ to be destroyed ... if you can understand such an
aberration."

"We understand thoroughly." "You bet we understand that!"

"I was sure you would. Well, this brain had so many unintended
cross-connections that I developed a couple of qualities no Oman had
ever had or ought to have. But I liked them, so I hid them so nobody
ever found out--that is, until much later, when I became a Boss myself.
I didn't know that anybody except me had ever had such qualities--except
the Masters, of course--until I encountered you Terrans. You all have
two of those qualities, and even more than I have--curiosity and
imagination."

Sandra and Hilton stared wordlessly at each other and Tula, now Tuly,
went on:

"Having the curiosity, I kept on experimenting with my brain, trying to
strengthen and organize its ability to peyondire. All Omans can
peyondire a little, but I can do it much better than anyone else.
Especially since I also have the imagination, which I have also worked
to increase. Thus I knew, long before anyone else could, that you new
Masters, the descendants of the old Masters, were returning to us. Thus
I knew that the _status quo_ should be abandoned instantly upon your
return. And thus it was that the Larry found neither conscious nor
subconscious resistance when he had developed enough initiative and so
on to break the ages-old conditioning of this brain against change."

"I see. Wonderful!" Hilton exclaimed. "But you couldn't quite--even with
his own help--break Larry's?"

* * * * *

"That is righ