Carfon and the others go back."

"No, we're going it alone--unless you want to come along. I did want you
to stick around until I got to a good chance to talk to you alone--now
will be a good a time as any. You and I have traded brains, and besides,
we've been through quite a lot of grief together, here and there--I want
to apologize to you for not passing along to you all this stuff I've
been getting here. In fact, I really wish I didn't have to have it
myself. Get me?"

"Got you? I'm 'way ahead of you! Don't want it, not any part of
it--that's why I've stayed away from any chance of learning any of it,
and the one reason why I am going back home instead of going with you. I
have just brains enough to realize that neither I nor any other man of
my race should have it. By the time we grow up to it naturally we shall
be able to handle it, but not until then."

The two brain brothers grasped hands strongly, and Dunark continued in a
lighter vein: "It takes all kinds of people to make a world, you
know--and all kinds of races, except the Fenachrone, to make a Universe.
With Mardonale gone, the evolution of Osnome shall progress rapidly, and
while we may not reach the Ultimate Goal, I have learned enough from you
already to speed up our progress considerably."

"Well, that's that. Had to get it off my chest, although I knew you'd
get the idea all right. Here are the girls--Sitar too. We'll show 'em
around."

* * * * *

Seaton's first thought was for the very brain of the ship--the precious
lens of neutronium in its thin envelope of the eternal jewel--without
which the beam of fifth-order rays could not be directed. He found it a
quarter of a mile back from the needle-sharp prow, exactly in the
longitudinal axis of the hull, protected from any possible damage by
bulkhead after massive bulkhead of impregnable inoson. Satisfied upon
that point, he went in search of the others, who were exploring their
vast new space-ship.

Huge as she was, there was no waste space--her design was as compact as
that of a fine radio set. The living quarters were grouped closely about
the central compartment, which housed the power plants, the many ray
generators and projectors, and the myriads of controls of the marvelous
mechanism for the projection and direction of fifth-order rays. Several
large compartments were devoted to the machinery which automatically
serviced the vessel--refrigerators, heaters, g