Fortunately the treasure-trove from the library would give the two men enough for years of work, and required the attention of a full group. They were eager now to take off for Earth and to begin recruiting a new expedition, taking only enough with them for the first basic steps. Lenk headed directly for the control room. He began setting up the proper directions on the board while Jeremy finished the account. "But _something's_ hitting the planets," he objected. His hand found the main button and the _Clarion_ began heading up through the atmosphere on normal gravity warp, until she could reach open space, and go into hyperdrive. "Your monsters prove to be only people--but it still doesn't explain the way disaster follows a line straight toward Earth! And until we know...." "Maybe we'd be better off not knowing," Jeremy said. But he refused to clarify his statement. Then the hyperdrive went on. The homeward trip was somewhat different from the others. There were none of the petty fights this time. Aimes and Jeremy were busy in their own way, decoding the language and collating the material they had. Graves was with them, grumbling at being around the heathen things, but apparently morbidly fascinated by them. * * * * * Lenk could offer no help, and his duty lay with the ship. He pondered over the waves of destruction that seemed to wash toward Earth, and the diminishing cultural levels on the planets beyond. It couldn't be pure coincidence. Nor could he accept the idea that Earth was the center of the universe, and that everything else was necessarily imperfect. Surprisingly, it was Graves who gave him his first hopeful suggestion. A week had passed, and they were well into the second when the men really caught his attention. Graves was bringing his lunch, actually smiling. He frowned. "What gives?" he asked. "It's all true!" Graves answered, and there was an inner glow to him. "Just as it's prophesied in _Revelations_. There were times when I had doubts, but now I know. God has set the heathens before me as proof that Armageddon will come, and I have been singled out to bring the glad tidings to His faithful!" "I thought you didn't believe God would have anything to do with heathens!" Lenk objected. He was trying to recall whether a sudden phase of manic joy was a warning symptom or not. "I misunderstood. I thought God had forbade space flight. But now it is proved how He loves us. He singled us out to teach us to fly through space that we could learn." Graves gathered up the dishes without noticing that Lenk hadn't touched them and went off in a cloud of ecstasy. But his point had been made, and Lenk turned it over. Then, with a shout, he headed toward the headquarters of the two remaining scientists. He found them sitting quietly, watching a reel of some kind being projected through an alien device. "I hear it's Armageddon we're facing," he said.