Bart's year among the
Lhari, while Meta and Ringg were both curious about how it had begun.

Bart tried to forget that the next day might bring trouble, even
imprisonment. The Lhari Council had told him to talk as much as he liked
about his voyage, and this might be his only chance. When he had
finished, Tommy leaned forward and gripped Bart's hand tightly.

"You make them sound like pretty decent people," he said, looking at
Ringg. "A year ago, if you'd told me I'd be here with a Lhari spaceman
and a bunch of Mentorians, I'd never have believed it."

"Nor I, that I would be as friend under a human roof," Ringg replied.
"But a friend to Bart is my friend also." He touched the faint
discolored scars on his brow, saying softly, "But for Bart, I would not
be here to greet anyone, man or Lhari, as friend."

"So," said Tommy triumphantly, "you haven't failed, even if you didn't
discover the secret of the Eighth Color--"

But a sudden, blinding light burst over Bart as Ringg moved his hand to
the scars. Once again he searched a cave beneath a green star, where
Ringg lay unconscious and bleeding, and played his Lhari light fearfully
over a waterfall of colored minerals. _And there was one whose color he
could not identify--red, blue, violet, green, none of these_--the color
of an unknown star in an unknown galaxy, the shimmer of a landing Lhari
ship, the color of an unknown element in an unknown fuel--

"The secret of the Eighth Color," he said, and stood up, his hands
literally shaking in excitement. "I'm an _idiot_! No, don't ask me any
questions! I could still be wrong. But even if I go to a prison planet,
the Eighth Color isn't a secret any more!"

When the others had gone back to the city, he sat with Raynor Three in
the room where the latter had told him of his father's death, where he
had first seen his terrifying Lhari face. They spoke little, but Raynor
Three finally asked, "Were you serious about not wanting a defense,
Bart?"

"I was. All I want is a chance to tell my own story in my own way. Where
everyone will hear me."

Raynor Three looked at him curiously. "There's something you're not
telling, Bart. Want to tell me?"

Bart hesitated, then held out his hand and clasped his kinsman's.
"Thanks--but no."

Raynor Three saw his hesitation and chuckled. "All right, son. Forget I
asked. You've grown up."

It was good to sleep in a soft human-type bed again, to eat breakfast
and shave and dress in ordinar