The other grinned again, wryly. "It's simple. Time machines work in one direction--they can't go back. Your time traveller found that out too late. No trips to the past, no return from the future--and no paradoxes, Ned Brussels." He came to his feet, moving over to drop into the chair beside Ned. The older man nodded, stretching out his hand. "I told you not to try the damned machine, Pete," Ned told him. Then he chuckled as the oldest cliche among old friends meeting again came to his lips. "Fifty years--and you haven't changed a bit, Pete LeFranc!"