At that moment Don's stomach gave a hop and he felt blood rushing to his head. Others also had pained or nauseous expressions. "Ugh," Alis said. "Now what?" "I'd guess," Don said when his stomach had settled back in place, "that we've stopped rising." "You mean we've gone as high as we're going to go?" "I hope so. We'd run out of air if we went much higher." Professor Garet came in presently, looking pleased with himself. He nodded to his wife and the men next to her and cleared his throat as he looked out over the room. "Altitude 21,500 feet," he announced without preamble. "Temperature sixteen degrees Fahrenheit. From here on out--" he paused, repeated "out" and chuckled--"it's going to be a bit chilly. Those of you who are inadequately clothed will see my wife for extra garments. I believe you have been comfortably housed and fed. There will, of course, be no charge for these services while you are the guests of the Cavalier Institute of Applied Sciences. Thank you. I now present Mr. Hector Civek, the mayor of Superior, who will answer any other questions you may have." Don looked at Alis, who shrugged. The conductor stood and opened a notebook which he consulted. "I have a few questions, Mr. Mayor. These people have asked me to speak for them and there's one question that outweighs all the others. That is--are you going to take us back to Earth? If so, when? And how?" Civek cleared his throat. He took a sip of water. "As for the first question--we certainly hope to take you and ourselves back to Earth. I can't answer the others." "You hope to?" "Earnestly. I turn blue easily myself, and I'm as anxious as you are to get back. But when that will be depends entirely on circumstances. Circumstances, uh, beyond my control." "Who's controlling them, then? Your friend with the whiskers?" Professor Garet smiled amiably and patted his beard. The portly Maynard Rubach got up and Civek sat down. "I am Dr. Maynard Rubach, president of Cavalier. I must insist that in common decency we all refrain from personal references. Mr. Civek has done his best to give you an explanation, but of course he is a layman and, while he has many excellent qualities, we cannot expect him to be conversant with the principles of science. I will therefore attempt to explain. "As you know, science has been aware for hundreds of years that the Earth is a giant magnet...." Don saw Geneva Jervis. She was at the kitchen door beyond the speaker's table. "... the isogenic and the isoclinic ..." The red-haired Miss Jervis saw Don now and put her finger to her lips. "... an ultimote, which is simultaneously an integral part of ..." Now the redhead was beckoning to him urgently. He excused himself to Alis, who frowned when she saw the other girl; then he went back of the speaker's table ("... 1,257 tenescopes to the square centimeter ...") into the kitchen. Jen Jervis was by now at the far end of it, motioning him to hurry up.