spect for his
genius, but brain surgery is a specialty and I really think that this
task would be outside even his capabilities. I am sure he himself
would admit it."

"You are right, Dr. Ku: he has admitted it. We both realize there is
only one person in the universe who could achieve it--you. So you will
have to perform the operations."

"Well!" said Dr. Ku Sui. The smooth, fine skin of his brow wrinkled
slightly as he gazed up at the intent man facing him. "Is this just
stupidity on your part, Captain? Or do you attempt a joke at which in
courtesy I should smile?"

The Hawk answered levelly: "I was never farther from joking in my
life."

* * * * *

With a delicate shrug of his silken shoulders, Ku Sui averted his
eyes. As if bored, he glanced around the room. Slowly he unclasped his
hands.

"I am a very fast shot, Dr. Ku," whispered Carse. "You must not make a
single move without my permission."

At that the Eurasian laughed aloud, a liquid laugh that showed his
even teeth between the finely cut lips.

"But I am so completely in your power, Captain Carse!" He held on to
the last syllable, a low, sustained hiss--and then he snapped it off.

"_S-s-stah!_" His mood had changed: the smile vanished from a face
suddenly thin and cruel; the green eyes unmasked, to show in their
depths the tiger.

"What insane talk! You say such things to me! Don't you know that to
coordinate those brains I worked for years with a devotion, a
concentration, a genius you can never hope even to comprehend? Don't
you realize they're the most precious possession of the greatest
surgeon and the greatest mind in the universe? Don't you understand
that I've fashioned a miracle? Realize these things, then, and marvel
at yourself--you who, with your gun and your egotism, think you can
make me undo their wonderful coordination!"

The tiger returned behind the veil, its power and fury again leashed,
and Dr. Ku Sui relaxed his green eyes once more masked and enigmatic.
Hawk Carse asked simply:

"_Could_ you transplant the brains?"

"You insist on continuing this farce?" murmured the Eurasian. "I would
not be rude, but really you try my patience!"

"_Could_ you transplant the brains?"

Dr. Ku Sui looked at the colorless face with its eyes of ice. With a
trace of irritation, he said:

"Of course! What I have once transplanted, I can transplant again. But
I will not do it--and my will no one, and no for