telling us, Kurt?" somebody demanded. One of the distillery
company; the name would come back to Conn in a moment. "When this crop
gets pressed and fermented--"

"When I start pressing, I don't know where in Gehenna I'm going to vat
the stuff till it ferments," Colonel Zareff said. "Or why. You won't be
able to handle all of it."

"Now, now!" Fawzi reproved. "Let's not start moaning about our troubles.
Not the day Conn's come home. Not when he's going to tell us how to find
the Third Fleet-Army Force Brain."

"You _did_ find out where the Brain is, didn't you, Conn?" Brangwyn
asked anxiously.

That set half a dozen of them off at once. They had all sat down after
the toast; now they were fidgeting in their chairs, leaning forward,
looking at Conn fixedly.

"What did you find out, Conn?"

"It's still here on Poictesme, isn't it?"

"Did you find out where it is?"

He wanted to tell them in one quick sentence and get it over with. He
couldn't, any more than he could force himself to squeeze the trigger of
a pistol he knew would blow up in his hand.

"Wait a minute, gentlemen." He finished the brandy, and held out the
glass to Tom Brangwyn, nodding toward the pitcher. Even the first drink
had warmed him and he could feel the constriction easing in his throat
and the lump at the pit of his stomach dissolving. "I hope none of you
expect me to spread out a map and show you the cross on it, where the
Brain is. I can't. I can't even give the approximate location of the
thing."

Much of the happy eagerness drained out of the faces around him. Some of
them were looking troubled; Colonel Zareff was gnawing the bottom of his
mustache, and Judge Ledue's hand shook as he tried to relight his cigar.
Conn stole a quick side-glance at his father; Rodney Maxwell was
watching him curiously, as though wondering what he was going to say
next.

"But it is still here on Poictesme?" Fawzi questioned. "They didn't take
it away when they evacuated, did they?"

Conn finished his second drink. This time he picked up the pitcher and
refilled for himself.

"I'm going to have to do a lot of talking," he said, "and it's going to
be thirsty work. I'll have to tell you the whole thing from the
beginning, and if you start asking questions at random, you'll get me
mixed up and I'll miss the important points."

"By all means!" Judge Ledue told him. "Give it in your own words, in
what you think is the proper order."

"Thank you, Judge."