. "It isn't even a city, in our sense of the term, no
more than a birdhouse is a nest." He looked up. "That city was built for
only one purpose--to give human beings certain data. And it's evidently
data that we need in a hurry, for our own good."

"How so?" Rawlings asked, a look of faint surprise on his face.

"Same analogy. Why does anyone feed birds? Two reasons--either to study
and watch them, or to be kind to them. You feed birds in the winter
because they might die if they didn't get enough food."

"Maybe we're being studied and watched, then," said Duckworth,
probingly.

"Possibly. But we won't know for a long time--if ever."

Duckworth grinned. "Right. I've seen this City. I've looked it over
carefully in the past few months. Whatever entities built it are so far
ahead of us that we can't even imagine what it will take to find out
anything about them. We are as incapable of understanding them as a bird
is incapable of understanding us."

"Who knows about this?" Turnbull asked suddenly.

"The entire Advanced Study Board at least," said Rawlings. "We don't
know how many others. But so far as we know everyone who has been able
to recognize what is really going on at the City has also been able to
realize that it is something that the human race _en masse_ is not yet
ready to accept."

"What about the technicians who are actually working there?" asked
Turnbull.

Rawlings smiled. "The artifacts are very carefully replaced. The
technicians--again, as far as we know--have accepted the evidence of
their eyes."

* * * * *

Turnbull looked a little dissatisfied. "Look, there are plenty of people
in the galaxy who would literally hate the idea that there is anything
in the universe superior to Man. Can you imagine the storm of reaction
that would hit if this got out? Whole groups would refuse to have
anything to do with anything connected with the City. The Government
would collapse, since the whole theory of our present government comes
from City data. And the whole work of teaching intuitive reasoning would
be dropped like a hot potato by just those very people who need to learn
to use it.

"And it seems to me that some precautions--" He stopped, then grinned
rather sheepishly. "Oh," he said, "I see."

Rawlings grinned back. "There's never any need to distort the truth.
Anyone who is psychologically incapable of allowing the existence of
beings more powerful than Man is al