ould you ever hope to make progress if you stopped to
examine every alternate probability and possibility that appeared to
you?" He shook his head vigorously and his plume vibrated with emotion.

"You must have a plan," he continued. "A goal. Study of the Universe
cannot proceed in any random, erratic fashion. You must know what you
want and then find out where to look for it."

Carmen sat down slowly. Hockley was sure the Ryke did not notice the
tense bulge of the chemist's jaw muscles. Perhaps he would not have
understood the significance if he had noticed.

* * * * *

Hockley was a trifle late in getting to the dining room at lunch time
that day. By the time he did so the place was like a beehive. He was
almost repelled by the furor of conversation circulating in the room as
he entered.

He passed through slowly, searching for a table of his own. He paused a
moment behind Dr. Carmen, who was declaiming in no mild terms his
opinions of a system that would pre-select those areas of research which
were to be entered and those which were not. He smiled a little as he
caught the eye of one of the dozen chemists seated at the table,
listening.

Moving on, he observed that Silvers had also cornered a half dozen or so
of his colleagues in his own field and was in earnest conversation with
them--in a considerably more restrained manner, however, than he had
used the previous evening with Hockley, or than Carmen was using at the
present time.

The entire room was abuzz with similar groups.

The senators had tried to mingle with the others in past days, always
with more or less lack of success because they found themselves out of
the conversation almost completely. Today they had no luck whatever.
They were seated together at a couple of tables in a corner. None of
them seemed to be paying attention to the food before them, but were
glancing about, half-apprehensively, at their fellow diners--who were
also paying no attention to food.

Hockley caught sight of his political colleagues and sensed their
dismay. The field of disquietude seemed almost tangible in the air. The
senators seemed half frightened by what they felt but could not
understand.

Showalter's wild waving at the far corner of the room finally caught
Hockley's eye and he moved toward the small table which the assistant
had reserved for them. Showalter was upset, too, by the atmosphere
within the room.

"What the devil