ery old race. In the beginning we did not live in
caves but there came a long period of time, for thousands of years, when
the climate on our world was so violent that we were forced to live in
the caves. It was completely dark there but our sense of smell became
very acute, together with sufficient sensitivity to temperature changes
that we could detect objects in our immediate vicinity. There were
subterranean plants in the caves and food was no problem._"

* * * * *

"_We had always been slightly telepathic and it was during our long stay
in the caves that our intelligence and telepathic powers became fully
developed. We had only our minds--physical science is not created in
dark caves with clumsy paws._

"_The time finally came when we could leave the caves but it was of
little help to us. There were no resources on our world but earth and
stone and the thin grass of the plains. We wondered about the universe
and we knew the stars were distant suns because one of our own suns
became a star each winter. We studied as best we could but we could see
the stars only as the little wild animals saw them. There was so much we
wanted to learn and by then we were past our zenith and already dying
out. But our environment was a prison from which we could never escape._

"_When your ship arrived we thought we might soon be free. We wanted to
ask you to take some of us with you and arrange for others of your race
to stop by on our world. But you dismissed us as animals, useful only
for making warm fur coats, because we lived in caves and had no science,
no artifacts--nothing. You had the power to destroy us and we did not
know what your reaction would be when you learned we were intelligent
and telepathic. A telepathic race must have a high code of ethics and
never intrude unwanted--but would you have believed that?_"

He did not answer.

"_The death of your brother changed everything. You were going to leave
so soon that there would be no time to learn more about you. I hid on
the ship so I could study you and wait until I could prove to you that
you needed me. Now, I can--Throon is dying and I can give you the proper
words of explanation that will cause the others to bring him into the
ship._"

"Your real purpose--what is it?" he asked.

"_To show you that men need the Varn. You want to explore the galaxy,
and learn. So do the Varn. You have the ships and we have the telepathic
ability t