l never-ceasing. We'll have to work in shifts,
naturally."

So it was arranged. All the assistants, both Ku Sui's and Leithgow's,
were portioned off into shifts of four hours' sleep and eight hours'
work: Carse, Ban Wilson and Friday, too, for now every one of them was
needed.

Nine days for the work of a month--and work as delicate and vital as
could possibly be! Small wonder that in the minds of all of them, the
Hawk and the old scientist, and Ban and the Negro, that period, when
remembered later, seemed no more than a confused, unreal, hazy dream;
rather, a nightmare connected imperishably with the odors of an
operating room, antiseptics, etheloid, and the glint of small, sharp
instruments.

It was a titanic task, an ordeal that stretched to the limit the
powers of the men working in that confined space. Normal life for them
ceased; the operating room became a new universe. Swiftly they lost
consciousness of time, even with the routine of the changing shifts
and the food which was brought in at regular hours. Antiseptics,
etheloid, the never-ceasing flow of the instruments, the five bodies
lying still and deathlike on the tables, the hard white glare of the
light beating down on them--all this and nothing more--all sealed away
underground from the life of the forgotten world above. On and on and
on....

* * * * *

It is impossible even to conjecture how the mind of Ku Sui saw the
colossal work that he was doing to aid his most bitter enemies. Even
when he was normal there are only moments when, through some recorded
speech or action of his, we can peer past the man's personality into
his brain; how great a sealed mystery must his thoughts remain to us
when held in that abnormal state by Eliot Leithgow's V-27! Envision
it: this arch-foe of Hawk Carse and Leithgow helping their designs,
lending all his intellect, his great skill, to their purposes, aiding
them in everything! Certainly, afterwards, the memory of what he had
been forced to do must have occasioned Dr. Ku many bitter moments.
Regularly, every four waking hours, he was led to the metal chair and
gassed afresh with the V-27; and his expression remained pleasant; his
eyes were always friendly. But the artificial state in which he was
kept showed soon on his face. It lost its clearness and became a
jaundiced yellow in color: and also it grew peaked and drawn.

But the other faces around him were peaked and drawn, too. The