Randall led the way back to the room where he had found the records. Zor Ala avidly began to read the information contained in the file, making notes from time to time on his mechanical pocket recorder. Meanwhile Randall wandered from room to room, finding that the DDT had done a thorough job, for nowhere did he find a sign of life in the motionless Kralon corpses. When he finally returned to the vault, Zor Ala looked up from his work and took a deep breath. "Randall," he said, his fine eyes shining with an almost evangelical light, "this is a summary of the most magnificent revelation in the history of the universe!" On the way back to the generator room Randall plied him with questions, but Zor Ala was so deep in thought that he didn't even hear them. As they re-entered the Time Trap laboratory, Malherne and Lanson looked up from their work. At Zor Ala's gesture they paused in their labor, and the rest of the humans waited for his words. "Friends," he said, his splendid head held proudly, and his deep voice rich with the surge of mighty emotion, "before we again return to our various ages, it is important that all of us know the most astounding story that it has ever been the privilege of mortal men to hear." While the crowd fell silent within the room, and those in the corridor crowded closer to hear his words, Zor Ala continued: "It is the story of Man in all his glory! It is the story of a superb race of men who exist so far in the future that my own age is antediluvian by comparison. It is the stupendous history of that race's realization of the ultimate goal of Life; a goal so tremendous that its concepts were staggering, even to those supremely mature minds!" Zor Ala paused, drew a deep breath, then went on. "Those far distant future-men knew that goal to be far more important than any one life or any one race or any galaxy. They knew that no effort should be spared in its ultimate accomplishment. "That infinite purpose transcended even individual or racial survival, and this almost divinely intelligent and benevolent race knew that the history of Life's development must be reviewed; must be re-examined to determine whether Mankind was the most suitable vehicle for its eventual attainment. "Following this postulate, they developed the science of Dimensional Time, and devised equipment for investigating the past. There, their first test of Man's fitness for the ultimate purpose was to aid forms of life other than Man. "First they set up elaborate scientific equipment to provide an artificial evolutionary leap ahead for one form which had diverged from the main stem. "Knowing full well that if this life-form progressed, Man's whole future would undoubtedly be replaced by an alternate future of insect supremacy, this super-race without hesitation continued its work of producing a tremendous artificial advancement for the rudimentary invertebrates. * * * * *