And now the acceleration of the ship had become so great that it was hard to stand erect. The rubber soles of our shoes was all that kept us from sliding to the stern of the ship. Lahoma got hold of herself by a tremendous effort, and shook off my arm which I had placed around her to keep her from falling. "Look," she said to us, "maybe there isn't any super intelligence sucking us into outer space. Maybe it's our own thoughts. I don't know how the rest of you have been feeling, but for several days now I have had a fear of outer space that has been growing simply terrific. Something like the fear of falling as you look over the edge of a cliff. Could that have anything to do with what's going on?" "Maybe that's it!" Jud exclaimed. "We don't know half enough about this stuff. It could be that such a fear would make it do the very thing feared." As if in answer, the ship stopped accelerating. "That MUST be it!" Mallory shouted. "We have a clue I hadn't thought of," Jud added. Looking at me he went on, "When you think of a chicken with its head being wrung, what thought goes with it?" "Why," I hesitated, "I think of a swell chicken dinner." "I think of how awful it is to kill!" Jud exclaimed. "It doesn't react to the idea but to the emotion." We experimented from that basis--without result. The tellecarbon was in complete revolt. It paid no attention to us. * * * * * Two more days and we had to admit we were licked. Jud voiced what we had all begun to suspect. "The tellecarbon must have developed a mind of its own," he said dispiritedly. "We should have taken that into account. It reacts to thought, so undoubtedly it has a few of the properties of the mind. What we must try to do now is reason with it--try to find out why it has become uncooperative. Let's all concentrate on that question and direct it at the tellecarbon and see what happens." We tried it. Nothing seemed to happen for quite a while. "An idea just came into my mind," Lahoma said suddenly. "It's absurd. I just thought, 'Suppose there is another chunk of tellecarbon out here and our chunk is lonesome?' The way it has been cruising around the past few days and ignoring us, it might have sensed another piece like it out here and be looking for it!" "That's funny," I spoke up. "The thought just occurred to me too!" "Me too," Mallory exclaimed. "Then it must be so," Jud said. "Obviously the thought came from the tellecarbon in reply to our question!" "But how can it think?" Mallory questioned. "After all it was precipitated as a fine film, and you can quash it and even slice it up without any trouble." "In science," Jud said, "you don't try to argue away facts. You accept the facts and go on from there." "Let's go on from there, then," Lahoma spoke up. "Tillie--we might as well call her that now that we know she, the tellecarbon, you know, thinks--is looking for a companion. We might as well help her look."