"These men are members of the Council Guard. They think you're a spy of some sort. They suspect me, too, for forgetting about you during the fighting." "That's ridiculous!" Jina burst in, her breast pulsing hotly. "They never thought of it until you suggested it!" "We can't afford to run any risks." "Who am I spying for?" Andreson demanded. "The beasts? Jina's right--it is ridiculous." "Yes, the beasts," one of the Guardsmen said flatly. "You're a native of Earth, no matter what your Time, and so are they. You could easily be the vanguard of a raid." Andreson's temper was already short from the buffeting he had taken. "There's not a shred of evidence for such a theory," he snapped. "Unfortunately, there is," Atel purred. "We noticed a beast travelling through the foundations of the city, just below the energy barrier, and managed to trap it. We let it get up into a pillar and then energized both ends. We were just about to kill it with hollow slugs when it materialized--the first time the beasts have ever succeeded in doing it, and it's an evil augury." "Well? I still don't see...." "_It was an Earthman._" Andreson's mind nibbled around the edges of the fact. It was startling enough in itself, but he could make little sense of it. How would an Earthman have gotten into the reverse universe? And how at this Time in the dim past? "Perhaps it's another victim of the gallery," he suggested, frowning. "It never occured to me before, but that infernal place might have been set up deliberately as a time-trap--perhaps by the beasts!" "Perhaps," the Guardsman said. "But we can see no purpose behind such time-trapping, and Atel's interpretation makes better sense. Come along with us." Andreson shrugged. "Where to?" "Starstone Chamber. The Council has been called to vote on what dispensation to make of both of you. Atel--hold his other arm. If the beasts wear down our shield we will all be thrown on our heads again." The Earthman allowed the Varans to take his elbows without any protest. He had a very vivid picture of himself buttered crimsonly over the inner surface of the rock arching above. _Save the heroics for later_, he thought. He had imagined a Council meeting as a huge affair, with all the banked chairs filled; but actually there were only about twenty of the Varese present, plus the lone, mysterious Earthman. Andreson scanned the stranger's features eagerly as they approached. "Well, I'll be damned!" he shouted. "What are you doing here?" "Hello, Ken," Kimball said calmly. "I hardly know myself. Read my letter yet?" "No. Say--are _you_ responsible for that Surrealist trickery back in our own time? I should have guessed it. I ought to push your face in."