Then Minnn and Monnn locked forces, and Chester reeled with the shock and swirl of the combat. The two forces mixed, fused, separated, mingled, yet Chester somehow knew always which was which, got bursts of the reasoning of each, knew in some indescribable way the alien, indecipherable natures of each of them. For an instant he panicked. Something mysterious and terrible as the dark energy of infinity was pounding and flashing in his merely human synapses and cells, something he understood yet could not understand at all. He felt a draining, and knew Minnn was tapping him for energy. Chester rallied to help Monnn. He pulled his energy, his thoughts, away from Minnn, rolling up, balling, clenching his powers, keeping them out of reach, probing for a chance to strike. Minnn filamented through half his body; part of the alien was needling and darting into Chester's mind, burrowing toward knowledge of his plan. Chester buried his plan in the very center of the ball of thoughts, hiding his last ace. He could not keep this up much longer, and he could feel that both Minnn and Monnn knew this. It was time for the big assault. He sent flash after flash of willpower crisping through his nerves, and Monnn interwove himself in these assaults. Minnn was being forced back, and back, intolerably pressured. Minnn hurled his energies at them in a sudden rush, and Chester felt something in him begin to tear like a piece of silk. Concealed from Minnn like the kernel of a nut, Chester cupped the knowledge, his last ace. He was at the verge of cracking, now was the time to play it. He edged toward the wall of the room, where a patient sat darkly on a bench. At the same time both he and Monnn drove forth their last few ergs of pressure against Minnn. Chester felt something raise his arm. His arm moved toward the patient; his palm touched the man's cheek. There was a sudden cleanness in him, and Minnn was gone. He leaped backward through the door and it swung to and locked. A peep-panel was opened in it and the black fringed husk hung up before the opening. Chester touched the talking-attendant so Monnn could pass over, then leaned weakly against the wall opposite the door. "I give him half an hour," he said. "Who's got a drink of water?" It turned out that they had waited only twenty-two minutes when the fringed sac began to take a luster, to puff and to fill. When they were quite sure Minnn was entirely within it, they wrapped it tightly in the insulation and took it away.