se to the brains."

"And what about Ku Sui?"

"Later," he said. "It should not be hard to take him prisoner.... Now,
enough!"

The three parted.

CHAPTER IV

_The Voice of the Brains_

The central structure of the group of buildings was shaped like a
great plus-mark, each of its four wings of identical square
construction, with long smooth metal sides and top, and with a door at
the end giving entrance to a corridor that ran straight through to the
chief central laboratory of Dr. Ku Sui.

Carse skimmed swiftly, two feet off the glittering metallic soil,
towards the end of the nearest wing, where he gently landed. He tried
the door giving entrance. It was open. He cautiously floated through
into complete darkness.

The Hawk was prepared for that. He drew a hand-flash from the belt of
his suit, and, standing motionless, his raygun ready in his left
hand, he probed the darkness with a long white beam. Spaced evenly
along the sides of the corridor were many identical doors, and at the
end a larger, heavier door which gave entrance to the central
laboratory. He found no life or anything that moved at all, so,
methodically, he set about inspecting the side rooms.

The doors were all unlocked, and he moved down the line without alarm,
like a mechanical giant preceded by a sweeping, nervous flow of light.
Such he might from the outside have appeared to be, but the man within
himself was more like a cat scenting for danger, all muscles and
senses delicately tuned to alertness. Door by door, a cautious and
thorough inspection; but he found nothing of danger. All the rooms of
that wing were used merely for stores and equipment, and they were
quite silent and deserted. When he came at last to its end, Carse knew
that the wing was safe.

He paused a minute before the laboratory door. He had expected to find
it locked, and that he would have to seek other means of entrance; but
it was not. By pushing softly against it, it easily gave inward on
silent well-oiled hinges. He entered.

* * * * *

Carse found himself in a place of memories, and they were sharp and
painful in his brain as he stood there. Here so much had happened:
here death, and even more than death, had been, and was, so near!

The high-walled circular room was dimly lit by daylight tubes from
above. The damage he, Carse, had wrought when besieged in it, a week
before, had all been repaired. The place was deserted-