antime--all we can do
is hold on and hunt, and let's hope better than the Strangers do."

X

Sadly the convalescent Gresth Gkae listened to the reports of his
lieutenants. More and more disgraced he felt as he realized how badly he
had blundered in reporting the people of this system unable to cope with
the attackers' weapons. Gresth Gkae looked up at his old friend and
physician, Merth Skahl. He shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid, Merth
Skahl. I am afraid. We have, perhaps, made a mistake. The better and the
stronger alone should rule. Aye, but is the _stronger_ always the
_better_? I am afraid we have mistaken the Truth in assuming this. If we
have--then may Jarth, Lord of Truth and Wisdom punish us. Mighty Jarth,
if I have mistaken in following my judgments, it is not from
disobedience, it is lack of Thy knowledge. The strongest--they are not
always the better, are they?"

Merth Skahl bent sharply over his friend. "Quiet thyself, Gresth Gkae.
You know, and I know, you have done only your best, and surely Jarth
himself can ask no better of any one. You must rest, for only by rest
can those terrible burns be healed. All your _stheen_ over half the
body-area was burned off. You have been delirious for many days."

"But Merth Skahl, think--have we disobeyed Jarth's will? It is, we know,
his will that only the best and the strongest shall rule--but are the
best always the strongest? An imbecile adult could destroy the life of a
genius-grade child. The strongest wins, but not the best. Such would not
be the will of Jarth. If we be the stronger, _and_ the best, then it is
right and just that these strange creatures should be destroyed that we
may have a stable world of stable light and heat. But look and see, with
what terrible swiftness these strange creatures have learned! May it not
be they are the better race--that it is _we_ who are the weaker and the
poorer? Can it be that Jarth has brought us together that these people
might learn--and destroy us? If they be the stronger, and the
better--then may Jarth's will be done. But we must test our strength to
the utmost. I must rise, and go to my laboratory soon. They have set it
up?"

"Aye, they have, Gresth Gkae. But remember, the weak and the sick make
faults the strong and the well do not. Better that you rest yourself.
There is little you can do while your body seeks to recover from these
terrible burns."

"You are wrong, my friend, wrong. Don't you see th