"The tellecarbon must have developed a mind of its own," he said dispiritedly. "We should have taken that into account. It reacts to thought, so undoubtedly it has a few of the properties of the mind. What we must try to do now is reason with it—try to find out why it has become uncooperative. Let's all concentrate on that question and direct it at the tellecarbon and see what happens."
We tried it. Nothing seemed to happen for quite a while.
"An idea just came into my mind," Lahoma said suddenly. "It's absurd. I just thought, 'Suppose there is another chunk of tellecarbon out here and our chunk is lonesome?' The way it has been cruising around the past few days and ignoring us, it might have sensed another piece like it out here and be looking for it!"
"That's funny," I spoke up. "The thought just occurred to me too!"
"Me too," Mallory exclaimed.
"Then it must be so," Jud said. "Obviously the thought came from the tellecarbon in reply to our question!"
"But how can it think?" Mallory questioned. "After all it was precipitated as a fine film, and you can quash it and even slice it up without any trouble."
"In science," Jud said, "you don't try to argue away facts. You accept the facts and go on from there."
"Let's go on from there, then," Lahoma spoke up. "Tillie—we might as well call her that now that we know she, the tellecarbon, you know, thinks—is looking for a companion. We might as well help her look."
"How do you know it isn't a him?" I asked.