gravitational
beam to deflect a part of it toward our sun. In this way we kept it alive
and might have been able to do so for ages. But now the dust-cloud is
gone."

* * * * *

Val paused to sigh, and then resumed his story. "The voice--I mean the
voice of Grim Hagen--promised my people that if they would accept him he
would take them forth into the stars. They would plunder thousands of
worlds and they would live for centuries while generations died. Also, he
said, he was on the brink of discovering eternal life--"

"He was playing at being the eternal Loki--the old mischief-maker--" Gunnar
interrupted and went on edging his sword.

"Well," Val continued, "I cannot blame my people too much for believing
this story. Our plight was desperate. But there were those of us who did
not believe him. He seemed to know too much, when according to our
philosophy the only wise man is the one who admits that he knows nothing--"

"I am not a philosopher," Gunnar interrupted again. "I only know that once
you have thrust a foot of steel into a man he does not bother you again."

"Please, Gunnar," Ato begged. "Let Val go on with his story."

"The rest of the story I do not understand at all," Val said with a shake
of his grizzled head. "This Grim Hagen said that he did not age until he
stopped to conquer a planet and replenish his ship's energy. It was thirty
years ago when he first spoke to us. He looks like a man of forty-five
now. Could he have been an upstart of fifteen when he first spoke into our
receivers?"

"I will try to explain that later," Ato answered.

"Well, there were those of us who could not agree with the general idea.
There are even some of the Lorens in the Violet Dome who think he is a god.
We think he is an evil man. We have no desire to plunder the stars. If he
is so great, why doesn't he give new life to our feeble sun? That is what
we really need. Meanwhile, the people of the Dome are building five new
ships, as Grim Hagen directed. They have been working upon them for
years--"

"Good God," Jack Odin was thinking, "what a hideous propaganda machine
these ships are? To condition and instruct a whole generation while you
flash through space in the twinkling of an eye!"

"And that is all," Val finished with a shrug of his lean shoulders. "Those
of us who had never agreed with the idea were thrown out of the city as
soon as Grim Hagen arrived. We have come to join forces w