n?"

"It ... ah ... would sooner or later become apparent."

"After how much damage had been done that could not be undone, since
Homo sapiens cannot ever be competent to guide and train Homo superior?"

"Well ... what about what he could learn from your Challon mind?"

* * * * *

"I would have no voice and no assurance that telepathy would be
possible. No influence that I could exert on him at any time could hold
him, if other factors impelled him to break free. A few months ago I
recalled a formula known to the Challon and with nothing more than
household chemicals prepared the quick and harmless anaesthetic I used
with you. What brought it to mind was a side-reaction reported as a
curiosity in one of the scientific journals Jerr ... Dad subscribes to.
It had an unexpected side-reaction for me, too, making direct telepathic
contact possible with you, but only under difficult and limited
conditions."

"There's a fortune in that alone--"

"That was an unworthy thought, Phil, typical of insecurity. I dare not
turn loose an immature, untrained, Homo superior, the only one of his
kind."

"But why the only one? Why not others as well so that they could work
in unison?"

"Don't you understand yet? _You are not sane!_ This planet is a
hell-house of disordered personalities, a place of horror, a
plague-spot. Suppose I had retained Timmy as my voice and planned on
releasing the inhibited potential of many people. I would have to start
with one man _and that one man would at once become my master_! If he
wished, he could be the master of all the earth. Could I risk that?"

"We have men of good moral character--"

"By what standards acceptable to all? A good churchman, perhaps, whose
first thought would be to bring everyone into the saving grace of his
religion? Or an atheist, who would take care that no rascally churchman
got the upper hand? Can you think of any man who does not have strong
opinions on at least one subject? Who does not have one thing that he
is a little bit more afraid of than anything else? One man who could
be raised to power first and not insist on at least one positive or
negative qualification for all who were permitted to follow? Something
they must either be or not be? Yourself, for example.

"Would you suggest that a Russian be chosen first? Or a Frenchman or an
Englishman? Or am I wrong in thinking you would 'naturally' want one of
your own countrymen to be