"Then you tell Kingallis that no man will strive forever with no result. The donkey must once in a while get a taste of the carrot."
"What do you want?" she asked softly.
"And if I tell you will I get the truth—or just more runaround?" he asked.
"You are too suspicious," she said softly. "Deference you may not have, really. But you do have respect."
"What manner of respect can you possibly have for me?" he said with an open sneer.
"You are a strong man," replied Rhinegallis. "Your strength is sufficient to penetrate the mental beam. To defy King's attempts to study you, bar my tries at following your reason. Kingallis can point the remote hypnosis beam at me and from it can read my innermost thought.
"Against all resistance the hypnoscope is best—except against James Forrest Carroll. You, Carroll, resent this studying and prying. Know—and feel gratified—that as little as you have learned from my brother he knows less of you!"
"And after defying all to completion the defiance is obliterated," replied Carroll bitterly. "For me—oblivion. For mine—what?"
"It need not be—loneliness," she said in a soft voice.
"Joy in the shadow of the sword?" he said sourly. "Pleasures of the flesh with an alien race that would not even understand my passionate gesture?"