Saluting smartly, Ramar Chind left Garr Symm's office. Symm smiled and sat perfectly still for some minutes. For Irwadi, yes, he was thinking. Certainly for Irwadi. For Irwadi absolutely. To make Irwadi the most important planet in the galaxy. But important planets--in the way that Irwadi would be important--couldn't maintain the status quo. For example, Irwadi's form of government might have to be changed. At present, an autocratic bureaucracy with no one man at the top. Ultimately, after the rediscovery of proto-man's secret--rule by one man. Garr Symm, absolute dictator of the galaxy, if he played his hand right. Garr Symm sat there for a long time, dreaming of power as no man before him on any world had ever dreamed of power.... * * * * * Vardin rushed into the airlock of the Canopusian freighter in a state of excitement. At last they had given her something to do, and she had been successful at the outset. Specifically, Ramsey and the beautiful woman had given her a scintillation-counter and told her to prowl among the wrecks with it while they worked on the control board of the freighter, which the beautiful woman had named _Enterprise_. "I found it!" Vardin cried. "I found it!" She led a sceptical Margot Dennison outside while Ramsey continued working on the _Enterprise_. The two girls walked swiftly through the darkness between the wrecks. By this time they knew every foot of the Graveyard. "There," Vardin said. "You see?" The scintillation counter was clicking and blinking. Margot smiled and went to work with a portable mechanical arm and a leaded bottle. In ten minutes, she had the slow-implosion capsule out of the hopper of a battered old Aldebaranese cargo ship. "I never saw one of those mechanical arms working before," Vardin said. Margot smiled. She was delighted with the timid Vegan girl, with the cold night, with the way the wind blew across the Graveyard, with everything. They had their fuel. Tomorrow night the _Enterprise_ would be ready for its dash into hyper-space. In thirty-six hours she might have her hands on the most valuable find in the history of mankind.... When they returned to the _Enterprise_, she let Ramsey kiss her and tried to slip the telepathic tentacles of her mind behind his guard-- Lewd libidinous fantasies, X stands for nothing for nothing for nothing, XXX--she got nowhere. What was X? What was Ramsey's secret? Margot did not know, and wondered if she would ever find out. She smiled, reading Vardin's mind. For Vardin was thinking: it must be so wonderful to have beauty such as she has, to melt the wills of strong handsome men such as Ramsey. It must be truly wonderful. For the first twenty-eight years of her life, Margot Dennison would have agreed, would have delighted in her own beauty. She still did, to a point. But beyond that point, she could dream only of proto-man and his secret. Beauty or power? She had beauty. She wanted power.