g to me, this home of yours: so
cleverly concealed!"

Leithgow vouchsafed his archenemy no more than a look, but turned to
the Hawk.

"You are ready, Carse?"

"Some preliminaries first, Eliot. These men, the four whites and the
yellow, must be put in some place of safety. You can take care of
them, Ban. One of the storerooms; lock them in. You remember your way?
Then, better take off your suit."

Ban nodded, and led the five robot humans out. Leithgow, Hawk Carse
and Ku Sui were left alone in the laboratory, and for a minute there
was silence.

How much had passed between these three! How many plots, and
counter-plots: how much blood: how many lives affected! The feud of
Hawk Carse and Dr. Ku Sui--and Eliot Leithgow, who was the chief cause
of it--here again had come to a head. Here again were all the varied
forces of brains and guile, science and skill, marshaled in the great,
vital game on whose outcome depended the restoration of Eliot Leithgow
and the lives of the coordinated brains and, indeed, though more
distantly, the fate of all the tribes of men on all the planets. For
if Ku Sui won free he would go on irresistibly, and his goal was the
domination of the solar system....

Three men, alone in a room--and the course of the creature Man being
affected by their every move. Large words: but the histories of the
period bear them out. Though, doubtless, Ku Sui alone knew how great
were the stakes as they stood there in the laboratory.

* * * * *

Hawk Carse was uneasy. The odds seemed all on his side--yet there was
Ku Sui's strange, almost imperceptible smile, his mysterious words up
on the asteroid, his smooth, unruffled assurance! What did these
things mean? He intended now to find out. He said, tersely:

"Eliot. I have informed Dr. Ku that he is to be the means of the
transplantation of the coordinated brains to living human bodies,
since he is the only person capable of performing the operations. He
does not believe that we can force him to do our will, yet all the
same he is taking no chances: he started the death of the brains. We
shall have to work very fast--all right. But Dr. Ku has other cards to
play against us, and I don't know what they are. You and I must find
out now."

"I somehow feel that you mistrust me," interposed the Eurasian with
mock sadness. "Ah, if you could only read my mind.... Or can you? Is
that what you are coming to?"

The Hawk glanced at L