Think, Senores! Compare the estate of men with the estate of apes!
Compare the civilization which will arise upon the earth when men's
brains are as far above their present level as the present level is
above the anthropoid! The upward steps of the human race under my rule
will parallel, will surpass the advance from the brutish caveman to
intellectual genius. But I have seen, Senores, the one danger in my
offering."

There was silence. Jamison shook his head despairingly. The Master
could not see him. He formed the word with his lips.

"Crazy!"

* * * * *

But Bell said coldly:

"Go on."

"I must rule," said The Master soberly. "It is essential. If my little
secret were known, intelligences would be magnified, but under many
flags and with many aims. Scientists, with genius beside which
Newton's pales, would seek out deadly weapons for war. The world would
destroy itself of its own genius. But under my rule--"

"Men go mad," said Bell coldly.

The Master smiled reproachfully.

"Ah, you are trying to make me angry, so that I will betray something!
You are clever, Senor Bell. With my little medicine, in such
quantities as I would administer it to you...."

"You describe it," said Bell harshly and dogmatically, "as a brain
stimulant. But it drives men mad."

"To be sure," said The Master mildly. "It does. It is not excreted
from the body save very, very slowly. But it changes in the blood
stream. As--let us say--sugar changes into alcohol in digestion. The
end-product of my little medicine is a poison which attacks the brain.
But the slightest bit of unchanged medicine is an antidote. It is"--he
smiled amiably--"it is as if sugar in the body changed to alcohol, and
alcohol was a poison, but sugar--unchanged--was an antidote. That is
it exactly. You see that I have taken my little medicine for years,
and it has not harmed me."

"Which," said Bell--and somehow his manner made utter silence fall so
that each word fell separately into a vast stillness--"which, thank
God, is the one thing that wins finally, for me!"

* * * * *

He stood up and laughed. Quite a genuine laugh.

"Paula," he said comfortably, "get on the plane. In the cabin. Jamison
and I are going to strip The Master."

Paula stared. The Master looked at him blankly. Jamison frowned
bewilderedly, but stood up grimly to obey.

"But Senor," said The Master in gentle dignity, "merel