And Dr. Kang said blandly, "I, too, have perfect confidence in your decisions, Dr. Lane." Anjers' round face puffed with petulance. His bushy eyebrows drew together. "Oh, very well!" he snapped in a tone almost a snarl. "But I warn you, you're making a great mistake!" And angrily he stomped from the room. * * * * * But to the man's credit, his pique did not last long. Before the day ended he had returned, as urbane as ever, with a contrite smile and an apology on his lips. So equanimity was restored aboard the _Liberty_, and that was good, for on a voyage such as this it was better to avoid all clash of personalities. "We are fortunate," said Dr. Kang one night after Lark O'Day had reported an argument in the crew's quarters which had almost resulted in a free-for-all between the blasters and the mariners, "we number no Venusians or Jovians among our corps. It has been my observation that the members of these two races mingle poorly with the children of your world and mine. Of the four races, our two are the more easy-going, theirs the more emotional. Perhaps the early history of your Earth might have been less bloody had not your continent embraced such a diversity of planetary colonists." Hugh Warren stared. "Colonists? Are you trying to tell us, Dr. Kang, that the races of Earth's mankind aren't indigenous to Earth?" The ivory-tinted one's eyebrows lifted slightly. "But of course they are not, Captain. Surely you didn't believe--or did you? But how unreasonable to think that one small planet would breed more than a single species! You of the white-skinned race are the only true race of Earth." "We _are_?" "Why, surely! Just as all the true children of Venus are dark-skinned, and we of Mars amber-fleshed. Oh, there is a certain fundamental root-stock common to us all, I suppose. But any medical man can assure you our differences lie not only in the color of our skins. Our races show many physiological variations. Blood plasma, hair structure, distribution of sinews, skeletal articulation--" Nora Powell asked, "Then the yellow races of Earth--the Chinese, Eskimos, Amerindians--were originally natives of _your_ planet?" Dr. Kang nodded. "Just as the ebony hued natives of your Africa came originally from Venus; yes. On my planet are small colonies of white and black skinned humans, and on Venus are aboriginal tribes of yellow and white skinned men. It seems an inexorable law of nature that on every globe the native tribe should rise to supremacy, while the secondary groups should achieve to a lesser culture." Gary said, "That is only partly true, Dr. Kang. Your Martian colonists on our Earth--or at least those who colonized the country known as China--have ever been a great and cultured people. Our forefathers called them 'backward,' but that was because they placed social culture above mechanistic advancement." * * * * *