“No harm!” gasped Donovan. “Oh, if that cute little tyke only had a neck.”

Lanning raised a quieting hand, “All right, it’s been a mess, but it’s all over. What now?”

“Well,” said Bogert, quietly, “obviously it’s up to us to improve the space-warp engine. There must be some way of getting around that interval of jump. If there is, we’re the only organization left with a grand-scale super-robot, so we’re bound to find it if anyone can. And then—U.S. Robots has interstellar travel, and humanity has the opportunity for galactic empire.”

“What about Consolidated?” said Lanning.

“Hey,” interrupted Donovan suddenly, “I want to make a suggestion there. They landed U.S. Robots into quite a mess. It wasn’t as bad a mess as they expected and it turned out well, but their intentions weren’t pious. And Greg and I bore the most of it.

“Well, they wanted an answer, and they’ve got one. Send them that ship, guaranteed, and U.S. Robots can collect their two hundred thou plus construction costs. And if they test it—then suppose we let The Brain have just a little more fun before it’s brought back to normal.”

Lanning said gravely, “It sounds just and proper to me.”

To which Bogert added absently, “Strictly according to contract, too.”

8. EVIDENCE

“BUT THAT WASN’T it, either,” said Dr. Calvin thoughtfully. “Oh, eventually, the ship and others like it became government property; the Jump through hyperspace was perfected, and now we actually have human colonies on the planets of some of the nearer stars, but that wasn’t it.”

I had finished eating and watched her through the smoke of my cigarette.

“It’s what has happened to the people here on Earth in the last fifty years that really counts. When I was born, young man, we had just gone through the last World War. It was a low point in history—but it was the end of nationalism. Earth was too small for nations and they began grouping themselves into Regions. It took quite a while. When I was born the United States of America was still a nation and not merely a part of the Northern Region. In fact, the name of the corporation is still ‘United States Robots——.’ And the change from nations to Regions, which has stabilized our economy and brought about what amounts to a Golden Age, when this century is compared with the last, was also brought about by our robots.”

“You mean the Machines,” I said. “The Brain you talked about was the first of the Machines, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was, but it’s not the Machines I was thinking of. Rather of a man. He died last year.” Her voice was suddenly deeply sorrowful. “Or at least he arranged to die, because he knew we needed him no longer.—Stephen Byerley.”

“Yes, I guessed that was who you meant.”

“He first entered public office in 2032. You were only a boy then, so you wouldn’t remember the strangeness of it. His campaign for the Mayoralty was certainly the queerest in history——”