tal mediocrity, I did what I had to do."

"You will pardon me," Tallis said, with only the faintest bit of acid
in his voice, "if I do not understand exactly what it is that you did."
Then his voice grew softer. "Wait. Perhaps I do understand. Yes, of
course."

"You think you understand?" MacMaine looked at him narrowly.

"Yes. I said that I am not a psychomedic, and my getting angry with you
proves it. You fought hard and well for Keroth, Sepastian, and, in
doing so, you had to kill many of your own race. It is not easy for a
man to do, no matter how much your reason tells you it _must_ be done.
And now, in the face of death, remorse has come. I do not completely
understand the workings of the Earthman's mind, but I----"

* * * * *

"That's just it; you don't," MacMaine interrupted. "Thanks for trying
to find an excuse for me, Tallis, but I'm afraid it isn't so. Listen.

"I had to find out what Earth was up against. I had a pretty good idea
already that the Kerothi would win--would wipe us out or enslave us to
the last man. And, after I had seen Keroth, I was certain of it. So I
sent a message back to Earth, telling them what they were up against,
because, up 'til then they hadn't known. As soon as they knew, they
reacted as they have always done when they are certain that they face
danger. They fought. They unleashed the chained-down intelligence of
the few extraordinary Earthmen, and they released the fighting spirit
of even the ordinary Earthmen. And they won!"

Tallis shook his head. "You sent no message, Sepastian. You were
watched. You know that. You could not have sent a message."

"You saw me send it," MacMaine said. "So did everyone else in the
fleet. Hokotan helped me send it--made all the arrangements at my
orders. But because you do not understand the workings of the
Earthman's mind, you didn't even recognize it as a message.

"Tallis, what would your people have done if an invading force, which
had already proven that it could whip Keroth easily, did to one of your
planets what we did on Houston's World?"

"If the enemy showed us that they could easily beat us and then hanged
the whole population of a planet for resisting? Why, we would be fools
to resist. Unless, of course, we had a secret weapon in a hidden
pocket, the way Earth had."

"No, Tallis; no. That's where you're making your mistake. Earth didn't
have that weapon until _after_ the massacre on