Yet in the faces of the gathered few there was apparent a wisdom and a penetrating understanding and a leisurely efficiency in action that it would have been hard to find the equal of, in any similar group in earlier times. And a good thing, thought Clawly, for what he was trying to convince them of was something not calculated to appeal to the intelligence of practical administrators--it was doubtful if any earlier culture would have granted him and Thorn any hearing at all. He surveyed the faces unobtrusively, his dark glance flitting like a shadow, and was relieved to note that only in Conjerly's and perhaps Tempelmar's was a completely unfavorable reaction apparent. Firemoor, on the contrary, registered feverish and unquestioning belief, but that was to be expected in the volatile, easily-swayed chief of the Extraterrestrial Service--and a man who was Clawly's admiring friend. Firemoor was alone in this open expression of credulity. Chairman Shielding, whose opinion mattered most, looked on the whole skeptical and perhaps a shade disapproving; though that, fortunately, was the heavy-set man's normal expression. The rest, reserving judgment, were watchful and attentive. With the unexpected exception of Thorn, who seemed scarcely to be listening, lost in some strange fatigued abstraction since he had finished making his report. * * * * * A still-wavering audience, Clawly decided. What he said now, and how he said it, would count heavily. He touched a small box. Instantly some tens of thousands of pinpricks of green light twinkled from the World Map. He said, "The nightmare-frequency for an average night a hundred years ago, as extrapolated from random samplings. Each dot--a bad dream. A dream bad enough to make the dreamer wake in fright." Again he touched the box. The twinkling pattern changed slightly--there were different clusterings--but the total number of pinpricks seemed not to change. "The same, for fifty years ago," he said. "Next--forty." Again there was merely a slight alteration in the grouping. "And now--thirty." This time the total number of pinpricks seemed slightly to increase. Clawly paused. He said, "I'd like to remind you, gentlemen, that Thorn proved conclusively that his method of sampling was not responsible for any changes in the frequency. He met all the objections you raised--that his subjects were reporting their dreams more fully, that he wasn't switching subjects often enough to avoid cultivating a nightmare-dreaming tendency, and so on." Once more his hand moved toward the box. "Twenty-five." This time there was no arguing about the increase. "Twenty." "Fifteen." "Ten." "Five." Each time the total greenness jumped, until now it was a general glow emanating from all the continental areas. Only the seas still showed widely scattered points, where men dreamed in supra- or sub-surface craft, and a few heavy clusters, where ocean-based skylons rose through the waves.