"You make them sound like pretty decent people," he said, looking at Ringg. "A year ago, if you'd told me I'd be here with a Lhari spaceman and a bunch of Mentorians, I'd never have believed it." "Nor I, that I would be as friend under a human roof," Ringg replied. "But a friend to Bart is my friend also." He touched the faint discolored scars on his brow, saying softly, "But for Bart, I would not be here to greet anyone, man or Lhari, as friend." "So," said Tommy triumphantly, "you haven't failed, even if you didn't discover the secret of the Eighth Color--" But a sudden, blinding light burst over Bart as Ringg moved his hand to the scars. Once again he searched a cave beneath a green star, where Ringg lay unconscious and bleeding, and played his Lhari light fearfully over a waterfall of colored minerals. _And there was one whose color he could not identify--red, blue, violet, green, none of these_--the color of an unknown star in an unknown galaxy, the shimmer of a landing Lhari ship, the color of an unknown element in an unknown fuel-- "The secret of the Eighth Color," he said, and stood up, his hands literally shaking in excitement. "I'm an _idiot_! No, don't ask me any questions! I could still be wrong. But even if I go to a prison planet, the Eighth Color isn't a secret any more!" When the others had gone back to the city, he sat with Raynor Three in the room where the latter had told him of his father's death, where he had first seen his terrifying Lhari face. They spoke little, but Raynor Three finally asked, "Were you serious about not wanting a defense, Bart?" "I was. All I want is a chance to tell my own story in my own way. Where everyone will hear me." Raynor Three looked at him curiously. "There's something you're not telling, Bart. Want to tell me?" Bart hesitated, then held out his hand and clasped his kinsman's. "Thanks--but no." Raynor Three saw his hesitation and chuckled. "All right, son. Forget I asked. You've grown up." It was good to sleep in a soft human-type bed again, to eat breakfast and shave and dress in ordinary human clothing again. But Bart folded his Lhari tights and the cloak tenderly, with regret. They were the memory of an experience no one else would ever have. Raynor Three let him take the controls as they flew back to the spaceport city; and a little before noon they entered the great crystal pylon that was the headquarters of the Federation Trade Bureau on Procyon Alpha. Men and Lhari were moving in the lobby; among them Bart saw Vorongil, Meta at his side. He smiled at her, received a wan smile in return. Would Vorongil feel that Bart had deceived him, betrayed him, when he heard Bart today?