"Your crusade is based on a false premise," Havlik said. "We came to Earth less than fifty years ago, not to destroy humanity but to guide it. The Kha Niish sent us as missionaries, to sow the seed of Their benign culture among men as we have sowed it among a thousand other infant races born into Their galaxy." The gyro tilted, spiraling down for a landing. A farmhouse, lighted windows cheerful against the dark countryside, rose to meet it. Beside the house, standing on end like a giant cartridge case, Manson saw a sleek, shining bulk--a ship. He raised incredulous eyes to meet the alien's dark stare. Comprehension stunned him. "You fiend," he breathed. "You've tricked me somehow--you've played cat-and-mouse with me from the first!" He remembered the gun in his hand and swung it up. "Let your weapon drop," Havlik said. "You set the autopilot at my direction. This is our evacuation point." The gun slid from Manson's fingers. He tried to retrieve it from the floor and cried out, startled, when his body refused to obey. The alien removed his manacles. "You will be free again as soon as we lift." "Lies," Manson grated. He fought to break the stasis that held him, veins knotting in his forehead with the effort. "I might have known!" The gyro landed gently, a hundred yards from the cylinder. * * * * * Figures swarmed about the great ship, pouring up a wide ramp in orderly embarkation. The girl Manson had seen at the villa came running toward the gyro, copper hair blowing in the night-wind. "You were almost late," she called to Havlik. "We're ready to--" She caught sight of the Earthman and broke off. In the dark depth of her eyes Manson saw understanding and a great pity, and for the first time it came to him that Havlik had not lied. Aliens they might be, but not destroyers--in this girl burned the same ideals, the same transcendent zeal that drove him. She was as human, basically, as he. _The same will to raise up the helpless is in us both_, he thought. _The compulsion to carry the saving light of reason to those in darkness...._ "Wait," he begged. "Your master wouldn't have ordered you away if Earth needed you--and if men can work out their own salvation, then they don't need me, either! Take me with you out there--let me help you, let me see the Outside galaxy of the Kha Niish for myself!" He spoke to Havlik, but his eyes clung to the girl as to a magnet. She met his gaze fully, the compassion in her own eyes deeper than grief. Havlik shook his head. "Your sanity would not bear the presence of the Kha Niish, nor of the other races Outside. You are drawn to this girl as to another of your own kind--but do you suppose that the Kha Niish would shape her in Their image? She is like the rest of us, an android creature, refashioned by the Masters to suit the environment of each new world we visit."