He turned deliberately and examined the controls banked around him. He reached to his pouch of tsith stems, and placed a few of them in his mouth before he continued.
"I suggest you try to distract the Dim-Ing's thought as much as possible, so it won't center on me here. I will try to hold out for half an hour at least, longer if possible. But hurry!"
Conflicting emotions swept across Jim like a flood, but were beaten down by the cold realization that Kaarji intended to carry this thing through without compromise. The Martian would destroy all of M'Tonak, including the Dim-Ing and himself, in an endeavor to save Earth from the thing that had happened so subtly on Mars.
Jim whirled, started to race away but turned back. "All right, Kaarji. Thanks seems a pretty feeble word for what you are doing, but if I get back to Earth I shall see that you are never forgotten for this. Now give me the rest of those tsith stems—I have an idea!"
Without question Kaarji opened the glassite door, and tossed out the pouch of stems. Jim snatched it up and raced away without a backward glance. He hurried from the room and up the stone stairs to the corridors again.
There the Dim-Ing's power struck more forcefully into his mind. It seemed somehow diabolically gleeful now. But Jim hurried on, hurried toward the evil entity. Finally he stood at the foot of the towering well, and saw the spinning globular shape descend upon its coalescing pillar of light.
"You did it well," the thought came flashing. "You kept your promise. The thing I have dreamed of for ages has happened, Bhruulo is out of my way and I have a free hand! Yes, Earthman, now I see in your mind everything that Bhruulo told you. There are other Earthmen here, completing a huge ship by which to go back to your planet. That is what Bhruulo was counting on, that is what he would not tell me. He had planned to take me to Earth and there keep me under his control, as he has here. But now that you have so kindly removed Bhruulo, I can do this by myself! I need only wait until the men have completed their ship, then blast their minds to annihilation!"
This Dim-Ing was the ultimate evil, not Bhruulo! Jim had known it all along, and now he realized how he had played into its hands! A momentary panic seized him. He could picture the thing landing the spaceship on Earth's northern or southern polar ice, or in the unexplored depths of Brazilian jungle. Hidden from the sight and knowledge of men for years, it would carry on the subtle destruction of Earthian minds as it had Martian; and now, unhampered by Bhruulo, it would grow in size and potency until who could say what the end would be! Perhaps there would be no end; there were other planets besides Mars and Earth....
"Thank you, Earthman, that is a thought I will remember. But your mental pictures of the terrain of Earth were rather vague. Show me more clearly."