Then his tortured lungs could breathe no longer. His legs crumpled painlessly beneath him and he went sprawling forward to come to rest with one arm flung out across a steel foot. The next instant was a frightful one. It was filled with agony, bewilderment and awful blackness. It seemed to Guyard that something was reaching out for him, something that was struggling to wrest him away from the void of nothingness. Then there was a sudden peace--and silence. * * * * * The dim walls of the laboratory slowly took form. They seemed to grow out of nothingness. Gradually they began to take on a definite shape and brightness. Other objects in the room became clear-cut and distinct. And sound vibrations floated in. Guyard was puzzled. He thought he must be awakening from some nightmare. Perhaps, after all, Zuldi and his men had been but a bad dream. No! There was blood upon the floor of the laboratory! The electric furnace that had once been upon the table was gone, had been torn away! The wrench still lay where it had fallen from his nerveless fingers! He was dead! His body had been thrown into the street! And yet.... Guyard was more bewildered than ever. His body was dead! And yet he could see! His consciousness was still alive! For a long moment, he wondered. Then the realization of what had happened came to him with a startling clearness. During his last moment of life, he had been sending a message to Zurk's brain, had been in the closest harmony with it. And during that last moment, his own consciousness, released by the death of his body, had leaped the gap between those two closely related brains! _He was now occupying Zurk's brain! He was now Zurk!_ The thought of it thrilled him. He saw his barrel-like chest of steel, his huge arms, his extended, powerful legs. He would kill Zuldi now! But first he would go to Marene. He would tell her that he was still alive. He would explain to her the transformation that had taken place. He would go ... now.... His thoughts broke off suddenly. Something was wrong. He had willed to rise. But his great body had not responded. Half frightened, he tried again with all the force of his new-found brain. A tiny vibration at the back of his neck became increasingly painful. The vibration grew quickly in intensity until it became a searing flame of agony, a searing flame that robbed him of his strength and sent the walls of the laboratory floating away into darkness. It seemed to Zurk--or Guyard--that it was hours before the energy rebuilt itself within the steel frame. He knew now where the trouble was. One of the hundred tiny wires at the back of his neck was loose; it was shorting his energy through the huge body. That was the message Zurk had been trying to get through to him even at the last moment! That was what had kept the man of steel immobile through the years!