d seats. Only in Keston's brain, and in mine, flamed
the new hope of release. Tomorrow the work would be done, forever.
Tomorrow, we would be released, to take our places in the pleasure
palaces. To loll at ease, breathing the sweet perfume of idleness,
waited on by machines _directed by a machine_.

* * * * *

For, as we stood behind the heavy canvas folds that Keston had drawn
aside, there towered, fifty feet above me, halfway to the arching
roof, a machine that was the ultimate flowering of man's genius.
Almost man-form it was--two tall metal cylinders supporting a larger,
that soared aloft till far above it was topped by a many-faceted ball
of transparent quartz. Again I had a fleeting, but vivid, impression
of something baleful, threatening, about it. Small wonder, though. For
the largest cylinder, the trunk of the man-machine Keston had created,
was covered thick with dangling arms. And the light of the xenon tube
that flooded the screened space was reflected from the great glass
head till it seemed that the thing was alive; that it was watching me
till some unguarded moment would give it its chance.

A long moment we stood, going again over each detail of the thing,
grown so familiar through long handling as it was slowly assembled.
Then my friend's voice, low pitched as was its wont, dissipated the
visions I was seeing. "Two hours ago, Meron, with none here but me to
see, those arms were extended, each to its appointed station. And, as
the sensitive cells in the head received the signals from the
visor-screens and the radio-speakers the arms shot about the
key-boards and pressed the proper buttons just as our men are doing
now. The work of the world went on, without a falter, with only the
master machine to direct it. Yet a year ago, when I first spoke to you
of the idea, you told me it was impossible!"

"You have won," I responded; "you have taken the last step in the
turning over of the functions of man to machines--the last step but
one. Routine control, it is true, can now be exercised by this--those
fellows out there are no longer necessary--but there will still be the
unexpected, unforeseen emergencies that will require human
intelligence to meet and cope with them. You and I, I'm afraid, are
still doomed to remain here and serve the machines."

* * * * *

Keston shook his head, while a little smile played over his
sharp-featured face, an