Bernard rested his hand for a moment on the older man's shoulder in sympathy. "It was wrong. We shouldn't have done it," he responded. "But we must forget it. Tomorrow, when it's light, we'll bury them." "I wonder if they were the only humanoid life on the planet," Rossiter said, pursuing his own train of thought "This island was the only land mass we found anywhere. If those five, so few.... When we blasted them, did we wipe out the planet's native humanoid life?" "Possibly," Bernard admitted uneasily. He cleared his throat. "If they hadn't attacked us we could have helped them. They were primitive, superstitious, blankly ignorant, of course. But they had good skulls. They could have learned. We'd have taught them, as we did the primitives on Earth. We'd have led them gently away from their superstition and ignorance. As we did on Earth. Let's not talk about it any more." Rossiter made a sort of noise. Bernard leaned forward quickly. "What's the matter, Dick? Are you all right?" "I--what you said--" Rossiter seemed to grope for words. "Be quiet a minute, Tom. I want to think. What you said then--I--it--" He laid his hands over his eyes. "I'll get Dr. Ferguson," Bernard offered. "No, I'm all right." Once more he fumbled for words. "I've suddenly come to understand. You made me understand--_as we did on Earth_." "What--" Rossiter got to his feet. In his normal voice, which sounded very loud in the darkness, he said, "I know what made the sun go out." The murmur of low talking ceased suddenly. There was a sense of listening, of half-seen bodies leaning forward intently in the starlight. Rossiter said, "On Earth there was always somebody dancing." "Dancing? I don't see--" Bernard spoke in wonderment, but there was an odd, apprehensive note in his voice. "There was always somebody dancing," said Rossiter. He halted. Then he continued in a stronger voice, "Always, in the high mountains there was somebody fasting and praying. Always before dawn there was the sound of the rattles and the stamping footsteps. "In the winter the flame leaped high on the rock through the swirls of snow as they made fire magic. They danced. They prayed. They chanted. And the sun came up." "What are you trying to say?" Bernard demanded. He had risen and was standing facing the older man. "That people used to think, before we taught them better, that they had something to do with the sun's rising. They grew too wise to believe it any longer. But who knows? Who knows whether they were not right? Whether the force that impels the stars is not, finally, the human will?" There was a silence. Somebody laughed nervously. Dr. Ferguson had already stepped forward and was holding Rossiter by the elbow. Together, he and Bernard urged the older man toward the _Elpis_. They spoke to him gently. They did not argue or disagree with him. They led him inside the ship.