-being had given them everything; they
had given him nothing and would give him nothing. Finally Seaton rose to
his full height and stared at them in turn, wrath and determination
blazing in his eyes.

"I have brought you four together, here in a neutral vessel in neutral
space, to bring about peace between you. I have shown you the benefits
to be derived from the peaceful pursuit of science, knowledge, and
power, instead of continuing this utter economic waste of continual war.
You all close your senses to reason. You of Osnome accuse me of being an
ingrate and a traitor; you of Urvania consider me a soft-headed,
sentimental weakling, who may safely be disregarded--all because I think
the welfare of the numberless peoples of the Universe more important
than your narrow-minded, stubborn, selfish vanity. Think what you
please. If brute force is your only logic, know now that I can, and
will, use brute force. Here are the seven disks," and he placed the
bracelet upon Roban's knee.

"If you four leaders are short-sighted enough to place your petty enmity
before the good of all civilization, I am done with you forever. I have
deliberately given Urvanians precisely the same information that I have
given the Osnomians--no more and no less. I have given neither of you
all that I know, and I shall know much more than I do now, before the
time of the conquest shall have arrived. Unless you four men, here and
now, renounce this war and agree to a perpetual peace between your
worlds, I shall leave you to your mutual destruction. You do not yet
realize the power of the weapons I have given you. When you do realize
it, you will know that mutual destruction is inevitable if you continue
this internecine war. I shall continue upon other worlds my search for
the one secret standing between me and a complete mastery of power. That
I shall find that secret I am confident; and, having found it, I shall,
without your aid, destroy the Fenachrone.

"You have several times remarked with sneers that you are not to be
swayed by empty threats. What I am about to say is no empty threat--it
is a most solemn promise, given by one who has both the will and the
power to fulfill his every given word. Now listen carefully to this, my
final utterance. If you continue this warfare and if the victor should
not be utterly destroyed in its course, I swear as I stand here, by the
great First Cause, that I shall myself wipe out every trace of the
surviving