down to
microscopic infusoria, the Mind would collect all its electrons, and
through some more jealous law of, er, cohesion hold these electrons
inviolate from matter and energy?"

"Right! And again, as in the beginning, the Mind would rule supreme. By
what I have proved, you and I and all other creatures that now have life
may, as separate unfleshed electrons, enjoy eternal consciousness as a
part of the Mind." A new passion leaped to his dark eyes. "When I have
finished my mission, no more need we be slaves of the dust, subject to
all the frightful sufferings of this dunghill of flesh."

He brought his fist down upon his skinny leg with a resounding blow.

"But you cannot reduce your theory to fact, Sir Basil!"

"No?" Again came that frightful grin to his cadaverous face. "Can you
withstand shock?"

"If you mean shock to the eye, let me remind you that I served two years
in the big fight."

"Then come to my laboratory. Better take another drink."

While Hale helped himself again from the _masata_ bottle, Sir Basil
swallowed another pellet.

Then the two went into the adjoining apartment.

* * * * *

Sir Basil, his hand over the doorknob, paused.

"Before we go in," he said, "I want you to remember that we call natural
that which is characteristic of the physical world. Everything alive in
this laboratory was produced by nature. I merely made available the
materials, or, rather, I made the conditions under which matter was able
to enslave mind-electrons."

He opened the door, slipped his body through, and, with his ugly,
teeth-revealing grin, gestured for Hale to follow him.

Hale steeled himself and looked around half fearfully. The first glance
took in a large and well-equipped laboratory, somewhat fetid with animal
odors. The second lingered here and there on cages, aquariums,
incubators, and other containers where creatures moved.

Suddenly, as something scuttled across the floor and disappeared into a
hole in the wall, Hale cried out and covered his eyes with a hand.

Sir Basil laughed aloud. "Why didn't you examine it closer?"

Hale looked nauseated. "My God, Sir Basil! A rat with a man's head and
face!"

Sir Basil's voice was sharp, decisive. "Before you leave this
laboratory, you're going to come out of your foolish belief that man is
a creature apart from other living organisms. You--the conscious you--is
no greater, no more important in the final balance th