Now the surrounding walls, glowing with light of their own, flickered. An ovoid opening in solidity appeared, forced by the mental-push of the approaching person. The figure of an old man, venerable of appearance, stooped and robed in the gold-mesh-cloth of the Galax-Mentor, floated into the room. The wisdom of ages lay imprinted on the face that was like wrinkled parchment beneath the blue emerald set in a forehead band, denoting his rank in the Supreme Council of Seven. The face lost its strain of menta-portation, and the old man landed gently at his side. "Greeting, Ilon," greeted Nyo Karth, his eyes darting intelligently about the room. "Er--Greeting, dad," said Ilon Karth, hiding his irritation. As the opening had been menta-forced into the room, his hand had darted instinctively toward a hidden compartment in the machine. Now he tried to hide the movement of his hand and what it contained as it sped toward the secret pocket again. But the keen eyes of his father saw and grew narrow and steely with surprise and suspicion. The older man reached out and grabbed his wrist. In Ilon's open palm lay a needle-ray weapon of defense. "What is it you fear, son?" he demanded sternly. "What can you, a princeling of your own people, fear here in our own galaxy?" Ilon Karth averted his eyes. "Has enough tonnage of _ithilyn_ been removed from the mines lately?" he asked, ignoring the other's question. "But there is only one thing to fear," continued his father wonderingly. "That is the minion spies. The guards of the secret galaxy. But what have you done to fear them? Don't tell me, Ilon, that you have been crazy enough to probe through the dark ultra-universes in search for lower life-forms?" "Look, father," said Ilon, indicating the machines. "I perform my assigned tasks here. Those only. I supervise the _ithilyn_ mines, watching their daily output through the scanner." Suddenly a greenish glowing swam through the open air, like the rays of a fairy elfin, settling around the room. The older man gasped. "It's the spy-rays of the minions, son! Whatever you've been doing, son, blank your mind as I do. When they're gone, we'll go into this foolish thing you've been doing." So they stood at the scanner and inspected the scenes of the lower _ithilyn_ mines. As Ilon's hands moved the controls, various scenes shifted before them. In the headquarters room, other men such as himself raised their heads, smiled and saluted, or answered direct personal questions.