t, that Dalis did not
lie or bluff! In your day, even, that was possible, and I continued with
the knotty problem until I deduced the manner of its doing. I, too, can
halt the Earth's rotation, or throw it out of its orbit! I took your
idea, Dalis, _independently_ of you, knowing you would never reveal
your secret to a Sarka, and amplified it until I can not only halt the
Earth in its orbit, but throw it out of its orbit entirely!"

For a moment Sarka studied the angry face of Dalis, and his own was very
thoughtful.

"Dalis," he said at last, "I wish you were not our enemy! For you are a
genius, and the world has need of all the knowledge of such genius as it
possesses. Why do you oppose us?"

"Because," snarled Dalis, "I guessed something of your plan that I do
not like! I do not like the Sarkas, never have; but neither have the
Sarkas any love for me! When you spoke to us all, I knew that somehow
you had discovered the secret! You spoke, when you delivered your
ultimatum, of attacking the Moon, and after it Mars! You also granted to
my Gens what would have seemed a great honor--to anyone who did not
fathom the tricky scheming of the Sarkas!--that of being the first into
the fray! If we are to be first, and the Moon is to be the first
attacked, then you plan to relieve the world forever of me, your
arch-enemy, by exiling me and all my Gens upon the Moon! A dead world,
covered with ashes, whose people dwell in dank caverns, like gnomes of
the underworld...."

* * * * *

"Stay!" snapped Sarka. "But I granted you a greater honor even than
that, Dalis! I planned on your Gens, led by you, making a successful
conquest of the Moon--because only such a genius as Dalis could force
from this dead world a living for his Gens! Because you are the wisest
of the Spokesmen, I planned for you the greatest task! Because I need
you ... I do not slay you!"

"I thank you," bowing low, with the deepest sarcasm, "but you honor me
too much! And tell me, pray, if it is not true that you plan for the
Sarkas their choice of the best and newest worlds of the Universe?"

Sarka did not answer for a second, while his sensitive nostrils quivered
with fury. The Sarkas had not noticed, but Jaska, daughter of Cleric,
had admitted herself through the Exit Dome, in a way known only to Sarka
and to herself, as she had entered many times before so as not to
disturb Sarka at his labors. She now stood silently there, di