“You’re right—I can see that,” Haynes nodded.
“We have been underestimating them right along,” Kinnison went on. “At first we thought that they were merely organized outlaws and pirates. Then, when it was forced upon us that they could match us—overmatch us in some things—we still would not admit that they must be as large and as widespread as we are—galactic in scope. We know now that they were wider-spread than we are. Intergalactic. They penetrated into our Galaxy, riddled it, before we knew even that theirs was inhabited or inhabitable. Right?”
“To a hair, although I never thought of it in exactly that way before.”
“None of us have—mental cowardice. And they have the advantage,” Kinnison continued, inexorably, “in knowing that our Prime Base is upon Tellus; whereas, if Jarnevon was
