" The _converter_ automatically set its gauges and
instruments of calculation, and gave its click of "ready."

Toolls fed a short length of _basic_ into the machine and it began its
work. The native was still unconscious.

The bone of the wounded arm slowly evaporated, beginning with the wrist
joint. The evaporated portion was instantly replaced by the
manufactured bone of the _converter_. At the same time it repaired all
ruptured blood vessels and damaged ligaments and muscles.

"It was not possible, of course, for me to replace the bone with another
of the same composition as its own," Toolls said, after the machine had
completed its work. "But I gave it one of our 'heavy' ones. There will
be no force on this planet powerful enough to break it again."

* * * * *

The native's first evidence of a return to consciousness was a faint
fluttering of the lids that covered its organs of vision. The lids
opened and it looked up at them.

"Its eyesight is as slow as its muscular reactions," Remm said. "Watch."
Remm raised his hand and waved it slowly in front of the native's face.
The eyes of the native, moving in odd, jerking movements, followed the
hand's progress. Remm raised the hand--speeding its action slightly--and
the eyesight faltered and lost it. The native's eyes rolled wildly until
once again they located the hand.

Remm took three steps forward. The native's eyes were unable to follow
his change of position. Its gaze wandered about the room, until again
its settled on Remm's waiting figure.

"Can you imagine anything being so slow," Remm said, "and still ..."
Suddenly Macker interrupted. "Something is wrong. It is trying to get
up, but it can't." The native was registering signs of distress, kicking
its legs and twisting its body into new positions of contortion.

"I see what the trouble is," Toolls said. "It's unable to lift the
appendage with the new bone in. I never thought of that before but its
'light' muscles aren't strong enough to lift the limb. We've got the
poor creature pinned to the box by the weight of its own arm."

"We can't do that to it," Remm said. "Isn't there any way you can give
it a lighter bone?"

"None that wouldn't take a retooling of the _converter_," Toolls said.
"I'm not certain that I could do it, and even if I could, we don't have
the time to spare. I could give it stronger muscles in the arm, but that
may throw off the metabolism of the whol