His killings were always the results of fair fights in which the victim had

every opportunity to defend himself and slay his attacker; and he was famous for

his loyalty to his friends. In fact this very loyalty had been a contributing

factor in his downfall which had brought him to one of Ras Thavas' ersite slabs

some years since, for he had earned the enmity of Vobis Kan, Jeddak of Toonol,

through his refusal to assassinate a man who once had befriended Gor Hajus in

some slight degree; following which Vobis Kan conceived the suspicion that Gor

Hajus had him marked for slaying. The result was inevitable: Gor Hajus was

arrested and condemned to death; immediately following the execution of the

sentence an agent of Ras Thavas had purchased the body.

These three, then, I had chosen to be my partners in my great adventure. It is

true that I had not discussed the matter with any one of them, but my judgment

assured me that I would have no difficulty in enlisting their services and

loyalty in return for their total resurrection.

My first task lay in renewing the organs of 378-J-493811-P and of Gor Hajus

which had been injured by the wounds that had laid them low; the former

requiring a new lung and the latter a new heart, his executioner having run him

through with a short-sword. I hesitated to ask Ras Thavas' permission to

experiment on these subjects for fear of the possibility of arousing his

suspicions, in which event he would probably have them destroyed, and so I was

forced to accomplish my designs by subterfuge and stealth. To this end I made it

a practice for weeks to carry my regular laboratory work far into the night,

often requiring the services of various assistants that all might become

accustomed to the sight of me at work at unusual hours. In my selection of these

assistants I made it a point to choose two of the very spies that Ras Thavas had

set to watching me. While it was true that they were no longer employed in this

particular service, I had hopes that they would carry word of my activities to

their master; and I was careful to see that they received from me the proper

suggestions that would mould their report in language far from harmful to me. By

the merest suggestion I carried to them the idea that I worked thus late purely

for the love of the work itself and the tremendous interest in it that Ras

Thavas had awakened within my mind. Some nights I worked with assistants and as

often I did not, but always I was careful to assure myself that the following

morning those in the office were made aware that I had labored far into the

preceding night.

This groundwork carefully prepared, I had comparatively little fear of the

results of actual discovery when I set to work upon the warrior of Phundahl and

the assassin of Toonol. I chose the former first. His lung was badly injured

where my blade had passed through it, but from the laboratory where were kept

fractional bodies I brought a perfect lung, with which I replaced the one that I

had ruined. The work occupied but half the night. So anxious was I to complete

my task that I immediately opened up the breast of Gor Hajus, for whom I had

selected an unusually strong and powerful heart and by working rapidly I

succeeded in completing the transference before dawn. Having known the nature of

the wounds that had dispatched these two men, I had spent weeks in performing

similar operations that I might perfect myself especially in this work; and

having encountered no unusual pathological conditions in either subject, the

work had progressed smoothly and with great rapidity. I had completed what I had

feared would be the most difficult part of my task and now, having removed as

far as possible all signs of the operation except the therapeutic tape which

closed the incisions, I returned to my quarters for a few minutes of much needed

rest, praying that Ras Thavas would not by any chance examine either of the

subjects upon which I had been working, although I had fortified myself against

such a contingency by entering full details of the operation upon the history

card of each subject that, in the event of discovery, any suspicion of ulterior

motives upon my part might be allayed by my play of open frankness.

I arose at the usual time and went at once to Ras Thavas' apartment, where I was

met with a bombshell that nearly wrecked my composure. He eyed me closely for a

long minute before he spoke.

"You worked late last night, Vad Varo," he said.

"I often do," I replied, lightly; but my heart was heavy as a stone.

"And what might it have been that so occupied your interest?" he inquired.

I felt as a mouse with which the cat is playing. "I have been doing quite a

little lung and heart transference of late," I replied, "and I became so

engrossed with my work that I did not note the passage of time."

"I have known that you worked late at night. Do you think it wise?"

At that moment I felt that it had been very unwise, yet I assured him to the

contrary.

"I was restless," he said. "I could not sleep and so I went to your quarters

after midnight, but you were not there. I wanted someone with whom to talk, but

your slaves knew only that you were not there – where you were they did not know

– so I set out to search for you." My heart went into my sandals. "I guessed

that you were in one of the laboratories, but though I visited several I did not

find you." My heart arose with the lightness of a feather. "Since my own

transference I have been cursed with restlessness and sleeplessness, so that I

could almost wish for the return of my old corpse – the youth of my body

harmonizes not with the antiquity of my brain. It is filled with latent urges

and desires that comport illy with the serious subject matter of my mind."

"What your body needs," I said, "is exercise. It is young, strong, virile. Work

it hard and it will let your brain rest at night."

"I know that you are right," he replied. "I have reached that same conclusion

myself. In fact, not finding you, I walked in the gardens for an hour or more

before returning to my quarters, and then I slept soundly. I shall walk every

night when I cannot sleep, or I shall go into the laboratories and work as do

you."

This news was most disquieting. Now I could never be sure but that Ras Thavas

was wandering about at night and I had one more very important night's work to

do, perhaps two.