notions of what
can be done and what cannot. Oh, Paul, what a glorious opportunity
awaits you on Sirius V. How I envy you!"

"Then why don't you do it yourself?" Paul asked.

Ivo smiled sadly again. "Unfortunately, I do not have your manifold
abilities. All I can do is act. Superbly, of course, but that's all. I
don't have the capacity to build a living theater from scratch. You do.
I have talent, Paul, but you have genius."

"It _is_ a temptation," Paul admitted. "But to leave my own world...."

"Paul, Earth isn't your world. You carry yours along with you wherever
you go. Your world exists in the mind and heart, not in reality. In any
real situation, you're just as uncomfortable on Earth as you would be on
Sirius."

"Yes, but--"

"Think of it this way, Paul. You're not leaving your world. You're just
leaving Earth to go on the road. It's a longer road, but look at what's
waiting for you at the end of it."

"Yes, look," Paul said, reality very much to the fore in his mind and
heart at that moment, "death or vivisection."

"Paul, do you believe I'd do that to you?" There were tears in Ivo's
eyes. If he was acting, he was a great performer. _I really am one hell
of a good teacher_, Paul thought, _and with lots of raw material like
Ivo to work with, I could.... Could he really mean what he's saying_?

"They won't harm you, Paul, because you will come to Sirius bearing a
message from me. You will tell my people that Earth has a powerful
defensive weapon and you have come to teach them its secret. And it's
true, Paul. The theater is your world's most powerful weapon, its best
defense against the universal enemy--reality."

"Ivo," Paul said, "you really must check that tendency toward bombast.
Especially with a purple speech like that; you've simply got to learn to
underplay. You'll watch out for that when I'm gone, won't you?"

"I will!" Ivo's face lighted up. "Oh, I will, Paul. I promise never to
chew the scenery again. I won't so much as nibble on a prop!"

* * * * *

The next day, the two of them went up to Bear Mountain where Ivo's ship
had been cached all those months. Ivo explained to Paul how the controls
worked and showed him where the clean towels were.

Pausing in the airlock, Paul looked back toward Manhattan. "I'd dreamed
so many years of seeing my name up in lights on Broadway," he murmured,
"and now, just when I made it--"

"I'll keep it up there," Ivo vowed. "I