Even while he was speaking, he had begun to remove the bandages from Rhodes' face. "The room will be dark," he said. "Gradually, we will increase the light. Your eyes have been in darkness for a long time." "My eyes...." said Rhodes in sudden fear. "You are worrying about them? You needn't. They were examined when the retinal pattern was taken. Miraculously, as miraculously as the fact that you are alive, your eyes are all right. Now, then, here we are! See--ummmm, no you cannot see yet. It is dark. There, a little more light. A little more. The eyes, they are all right?" "It seems awfully bright." "Any light would, at first. There, a little more. But you are young! Hardly more than a boy, I should judge. The purple of your skin--yes, the purple looks fine.... Not a mark, not a trace. My boy, you will not even be scarred." His face still felt stiff, but very cool. The contact with air was very welcome and the soft stirring of the currents of air as the doctor's hands did some final adjustments on the bandages which still covered him from the neck down, tucking them back into place. The first thing he saw was the doctor, a small bespectacled man with the vividly orange skin of a full-blooded Arcturan. The doctor was all smiles, and understandably. Then he saw a mirror. It was held before his face and he was aware of the doctor's slight intake of breath as he waited for a reaction, hoping some forgotten memory might be triggered. He looked in the mirror. "I--I'm purple!" he gawked. The doctor frowned. "Of course, purple. The Kedaki color." "I'm sorry. I don't know why it startled me." "Well, I can tell you. I am an Arcturan. This is an Arcturan hospital, and we have been speaking Arcturan. Even if you had been unable to see until today, you associated everything about this place with Arcturus. Probably," and Dr. Quotis laughed, "you were expecting orange skin." "Probably," said Rhodes, and laughed with him. "Well, enough excitement for one day. If you are strong enough, tomorrow we can have the first of your visitors, people trying to identify you. I warn you, there will be hundreds, thousands." "Any time you say," Rhodes replied eagerly. But behind the eagerness was a certain vague confusion. Why had the purple tints of his new skin stirred him so strangely? Purple. Kedaki skin color. What else did he expect? * * * * * The Director of the Five Bureau, the Kedaki Secret Police, said, "Stop acting like a fool, please." "But sir," wailed the prison warden. "I tell you, the Earthman's body was not uncovered in what remained of the prison." "What does that mean?" the Director demanded scornfully. "I have here the final earthquake casualty report for Junction City--shall I read it to you? There are over six thousand people still missing, my dear warden. Six thousand."