"Nodt by most people," Mitkey told him. And explained.
"I vould like to do something for them," he added. "Loogk, could I nodt
take back mitt me this brocess vhich you used upon me? Abbly it to
other mices, und greate a race of super-mices?"
"Vhy not?" asked Bemj.
He saw Klarloth looking at him strangely, and threw his mind into
rapport with the chief scientist's, with Mitkey left out of the silent
communion.
"Yes, of course," Bemj told Klarloth, "it will lead to trouble on
Earth, grave trouble. Two equal classes of beings so dissimilar as mice
and men cannot live together in amity. But why should that concern us,
other than favorably? The resultant mess will slow down progress on
Earth--give us a few more millennia of peace before Earthlings discover
we are here, and trouble starts. You know these Earthlings."
"But you would give them the X-19 waves? They might--"
"No, of course not. But we can explain to Mitkey here how to make
a very crude and limited machine for them. A primitive one which
would suffice for nothing more than the specific task of converting
mouse mentality from .0001 to .2, Mitkey's own level and that of the
bifurcated Earthlings."
"It is possible," communicated Klarloth. "It is certain that for aeons
to come they will be incapable of understanding its basic principle."
"But could they not use even a crude machine to raise their own level
of intelligence?"
"You forget, Bemj, the basic limitation of the X-19 rays; that no one
can possibly design a projector capable of raising any mentality to a
point on the scale higher than his own. Not even we."
All this, of course, over Mitkey's head, in silent Prxlian.
More interviews, and more.
Klarloth again: "Mitkey, ve varn you of vun thing. Avoid carelessness
vith electricity. Der new molecular rearranchement of your brain
center--it iss unstable, und--"
Bemj: "Mitkey, are you sure your Herr Brofessor iss der most advanced
of all who eggsperiment vith der rockets?"
"In cheneral, yess, Bemj. There are others who on vun specific boint,
such as eggsplosives, mathematics, astrovisics, may know more, but not
much more. Und for combining these knowledges, he iss ahead."
"It iss vell," said Bemj.
* * * * *
Small gray mouse towering like a dinosaur over tinier half-inch
Prxlians. Meek, herbivorous creature though he was, Mitkey could have
killed any one of them with a single bite. But, of course, it never
occurred to him to do so, nor to them to fear that he might.
They turned him inside out mentally. They did a pretty good job of
study on him physically, too, but that was through the J-dimension, and
Mitkey didn't even know about it.
They found out what made him tick, and they found out everything he
knew and some things he didn't even know he knew. And they grew quite
fond of him.
"Mitkey," said Klarloth one day, "all der civilized races on Earth year
glothing, do they nodt? Veil, if you are to raise der level of mices to
men, vould it not be vitting that you vear glothes, too?"
"An eggcelent idea, Herr Klarloth. Und I know chust vhat kind I vould
like. Der Herr Brofessor vunce showed me a bicture of a mouse bainted
by der artist Dissney, und der mouse vore glothing. Der mouse vas not a
real-life vun, budt an imachinary mouse in a barable, und der Brofessor
named me after der Dissney mouse."
"Vot kind of glothing vas it, Mitkey?"
That was on the eve of Mitkey's departure. Originally, Bemj had
suggested awaiting the moment when Prxl's eccentric orbit would again
take it within a hundred and fifty thousand miles of Earth. But, as
Klarloth pointed out, that would be fifty-five Earth-years ahead, and
Mitkey wouldn't last that long. Not unless they--And Bemj agreed that
they had better not risk sending a secret like that back to Earth.
"Bright red bants mitt two big yellow buttons in frondt und two in
back, und yellow shoes for der back feet und a pair of yellow gloves
for der vront. A hole in der seat of der bants to aggomodate der tail."
[Illustration: MOUSE
--WARNING--
FINE OF 500 BUCKS
6 MO. IMPRISONMENT
OR BOTH TO ANY
PERSON CAUGHT
TYING KNOTS IN OR
PLUCKING HAIRS
OUT OF CREATURE'S
TAIL--_POLICE DEPT._