"And it was the same with us and the Pyramids, only more so. What the devil _did_ they want? I mean, yes, we found out what they did with the Translated people. But what were they _up_ to? What did they _think_? _Did_ they think? You know, I've got a kind of a crazy idea--maybe it's not crazy, maybe it's the truth. Anyway, I've been thinking. Suppose even the _Pyramids_ weren't the Pyramids? We never talked to one of them. We never gave it a Rorschach or tested its knee jerks. We licked them, but we don't know anything about them. We don't even know if they were the guys that started the whole bloody thing, or if they were just sort of super-sized Components themselves. Do we? "And meanwhile, here's the human race, up against something that it not only can't understand, same as the Indians couldn't the whites, but that it can't begin to make a _guess_ about. At least the Indians had a clue now and then, you know--I mean they'd see the sailors off the great white devil ship making a beeline for the Indian women and so on, and they'd begin to understand there was _something_ in common. But we didn't have that much. "So what did we do? Why, we did like the reservation Indians. We turned inward. We got loaded on firewater--Meditation--and we closed our minds to the possibility of ever expanding again. And there we were, all tied up in our own knots. Most of the race rebelled against action, because it had proven useless--Citizens. A few of the race rebelled against _that_, because it was not only useless but _deliberately_ useless--Wolves. But they're the same kind of people. You've seen that for yourself, right? And--" Tropile stopped, suddenly aware that Citizen Germyn was looking tepidly pained. "What's the matter?" Tropile demanded harshly. Citizen Germyn gave him the faint deprecatory Quirked Smile. "I know you thought you were a Wolf, but--I told you I've been thinking a lot, and that's what I was thinking about. _Truly_, Citizen, you do yourself no good by pretending that you really thought you were Wolf. Clearly you were not; the rest of us might have been fooled, but certainly you couldn't fool yourself. "Now here's what I think you ought to do. When I found you were coming, I asked several rather well-known Citizens to come here later this evening. There won't be any embarrassment. I only want you to talk to them and set the record straight, so that this terrible blemish will no longer be held against you. Times change and perhaps a certain latitude is advisable now, but certainly you don't want--" Tropile also left Citizen Germyn sooner than he had expected to. * * * * * There remained Alla Narova, but, queerly, she was not to be found.