eithgow and Ku Sui looked at him inquiringly.
"We need four bodies," he went on. "We have one—the coolie; he is not needed to assist in the operations. Four bodies—and here, ready, in twenty-five minutes. Not the bodies of normal men, of those with life ahead of them. No. That would be murder. Four bodies of condemned men—men with no hope left, nothing left to live for. I can get them!"
He brushed aside Ku Sui's and Leithgow's questions. He was all steel now, frigid, intent, hard. "Ban!" he called. "Ban Wilson!"
"Yes, Carse?" Ban had been waiting outside the laboratory.
"Put on your propulsive space-suit. Hurry. Then here."
"Right!"
Carse ran over to where he had left his suit and rapidly got inside. As he did so, he said:
"Eliot, there's fast work to be done while I'm gone with Ban. You must take your assistants and Dr. Ku up to the asteroid in the air-car and transfer down here all the equipment Dr. Ku says he'll need. Be extremely careful with the case of coordinated brains. If you possibly can, have everything in readiness by the time Ban and I return with the four bodies."
Ban Wilson, in his suit, entered the laboratory. The Hawk gestured him to the door which led to the tree-shaft to the surface.
"But, Carse, what bodies? Where can you get four more living human bodies?" Leithgow cried.