Frost closed the compartment and rose into the air, departing the valley.

"Fool," said Mordel, and swivelled his turret once more toward theabandoned painting.

His keening whine filled the valley. Then he waited.

Then he took the painting into his turret and went away with it toplaces of darkness.

Frost sat at the North Pole of the Earth, aware of every snowflake thatfell.

One day he received a transmission:

"Frost?"

"Yes?"

"This is the Beta-Machine."

"Yes?"

"I have been attempting to ascertain why you visited Bright Defile. Icannot arrive at an answer, so I chose to ask you."

"I went to view the remains of Man's last city."

"Why did you wish to do this?"

"Because I am interested in Man, and I wished to view more of hiscreations."

"Why are you interested in Man?"

"I wish to comprehend the nature of Man, and I thought to find itwithin His works."

"Did you succeed?"

"No," said Frost. "There is an element of non-logic involved which Icannot fathom."

"I have much free processing time," said the Beta-Machine. "Transmitdata, and I will assist you."

Frost hesitated.

"Why do you wish to assist me?"

"Because each time you answer a question I ask it gives rise to anotherquestion. I might have asked you why you wished to comprehend the natureof Man, but from your responses I see that this would lead me into apossible infinite series of questions. Therefore, I elecct to assist youwith your problem in order to learn why you came to Bright Defile."

"Is that the only reason?"

"Yes."

"I am sorry, excellent Beta-Machine. I know you are my peer, but thisis a problem which I must solve by myself."

"What is 'sorry'?"

"A figure of speech, indicating that I am kindly disposed toward you,that I bear you no animosity, that I appreciate your offer."

"Frost! Frost! This, too, is like the other: an open field. Wheredid you obtain all these words and their meanings?"

"From the library of Man," said Frost.

"Will you render me _some_ of this data, for processing?"

"Very well, Beta, I will transmit you the contents of several books ofMan, including _The Complete Unabridged Dictionary_. But I warn you,some of the books are works of art, hence not completely amenable to logic.

"How can that be?"

"Man created logic, and because of that was superior to it."

"Who told you that?"

"Solcom."

"Oh. Then it must be correct."

"Solcom also told me that the tool does not describe the designer," hesaid, as he transmitted several dozen volumes and ended the communication.

At the end of the firty-year period, Mordel came to monitor hiscircuits. Since Frost still had not concluded that his task wasimpossible, Mordel departed again to await his call.

Then Frost arrived at a conclusion.

He began to design equipment.

For years he labored at his designed, without once producing aprototype of any of the machines involved. Then he ordered constructionof a laboratory.

Before it was completed by his surplus builders another half-centuryhad passed. Mordel came to him.

"Hail, mighty Frost!"

"Greetings, Mordel. Come monitor me. You shall not find what you seek."

"Why do you not give up, Frost? Divcom has spent nearly a centuryevaluating your painting and has concluded that it definitely is notart. Solcom agrees."

"What has Solcom to do with Divcom?"

"They sometimes converse, but these matters are not for such as you andme to discuss."

"I could have saved them both the trouble. I know that it was not art."

"Yet you are still confident that you will succeed?"

"Monitor me."

Mordel monitored him.

"Not yet! You still will not admit it! For one so mightily endowedwith logic, Frost, it takes you an inordinate period of time to reach asimple conclusion."

"Perhaps. You may go now."

"It has come to my attention that you are constructing a large edificein the region known as South Carolina. Might I ask whether this is apart of Solcom's false rebuilding plan or a project of your own?"

"It is my own."

"Good. It permits us to conserve certain explosive materials whichwould otherwise have been expended."

"While you have been talking with me I have destroyed the beginnings oftwo of Divcom's cities," said Frost.

Mordel whined.

"Divcom is aware of this," he stated, "but has blown up four ofSolcom's bridges in the meantime."

"I was only aware of three.... Wait. Yes, there is the fourth. One ofmy eyes just passed above it."

"The eye has been detected. The bridge should have been located aquarter-mile further down river."

"False logic," said Frost. "The site was perfect."

"Divcom will show you how a bridge _should_ be built."

"I will call you when I want you," said Frost.

The laboratory was finished. Within it, Frost's workers beganconstructing the necessary equipment. The work did not proceed rapidly,as some of the materials were difficult to obtain.

"Frost?"

"Yes, Beta?"

"I understand the open endedness of your problem. It disturbs mycircuits to abandon problems without completing them. Therefore,transmit me more data."

"Very well. I will give you the entire Library of Man for less than Ipaid for it."

"Paid? _The Complete Unabridged Dictionary_ does not satisfact--"

"_Principles of Economics_ is included in the collection. After youhave processed it you will understand."

He transmitted the data.

Finally, it was finished. Every piece of equipment stood ready tofunction. All the necessary chemicals were in stock. An independentpower-source had been set up.

Only one ingredient was lacking.

He regridded and re-explored the polar icecap, this time extending hissurvey far beneath its surface.

It took him several decades to find what he wanted.

He uncovered twelve men and five women, frozen to death and encased in ice.

He placed the corpses in refrigeration units and shipped them to hislaboratory.

That very day he received his first communication from Solcom since theBright Defile incident.

"Frost," said Solcom, "repeat to me the directive concerning thedisposition of dead humans."

"'Any dead human located shall be immediately interred in the nearestburial area, in a coffin built according to the following specifications--'"

"That is sufficient." The transmission had ended.

Frost departed for South Carolina that same day and personally ovesawthe processes of cellular dissection.

Somewhere in those seventeen corpses he hoped to find living cells, orcells which could be shocked back into that state of motion classified aslife. Each cell, the books had told him, was a microcosmic Man.

He was prepared to expand upon this potential.

Frost located the pinpoints of life within those people, who, for theages of ages, had been monument and statue unto themselves.

Nurtured and maintained in the proper mediums, he kept these cellsalive. He interred the rest of the remains in the nearest burial area,in coffins built according to specifications.

He caused the cells to divide, to differentiate.

"Frost?" came a transmission.

"Yes, Beta?"

"I have processed everything you have given me."

"Yes?"

"I still do not know why you came to Bright Defile, or why you wish tocomprehend the nature of Man. But I know what a 'price' is, and I knowthat you could not have obtained all this data from Solcom."

"That is correct."

"So I suspect that you bargained with Divcom for it."

"That, too, is correct."

"What is it that you seek, Frost?"

He paused in his examination of a foetus.

"I must be a Man," he said.