"Perhaps we have been worrying unnecessarily." Abbot got up to go, but his eyes still held Walden's. "But," he added, "it's up to you to watch him. If he reverts, becomes dangerous in any way, he'll have to be locked up. That's final." The others nodded. "I'll watch him," Walden told them. "Just stop worrying." He stood at the door and waited until they were out of sight. Then and only then did he allow himself to sigh and taste the fear he'd kept hidden. The old men, the men with authority, were the dangerous ones. Walden snorted. Even with perception, men could be fools. * * * * * The summer that Eric was sixteen Walden took him to the museum. The aircar made the trip in just a few hours--but it was farther than Eric had ever traveled in his life, and farther than most people ever bothered traveling. The museum lay on an open plain where there weren't many houses. At first glance it was far from impressive. Just a few big buildings, housing the artifacts, and a few old ruins of ancient constructions, leveled now and half buried in the sands. "It's nothing." Eric looked down at it, disappointed. "Nothing at all." "What did you expect?" Walden set the aircar down between the two largest buildings. "You knew it wouldn't be like the pictures in the books. You knew that none of the old race's cities are left." "I know," Eric said. "But I expected more than this." He got out of the car and followed Walden around to the door of the first building. Another man, almost as old as Walden, came toward them smiling. The two men shook hands and stood happily perceiving each other. "This is Eric," Walden said aloud. "Eric, this is Prior, the caretaker here. He was one of my schoolmates." "It's been years since we've perceived short range," Prior said. "Years. But I suppose the boy wants to look around inside?" Eric nodded, although he didn't care too much. He was too disappointed to care. There was nothing here that he hadn't seen a hundred times before. They went inside, past some scale models of the old cities. The same models, though a bit bigger, that Eric had seen in the three-dimensional view-books. Then they went into another room, lined with thousands of books, some very old, many the tiny microfilmed ones from the middle periods of the old race. "How do you like it, Eric?" the caretaker said. "It's fine," he said flatly, not really meaning it. He was angry at himself for feeling disappointment. Walden had told him what to expect. And yet he'd kept thinking that he'd walk into one of the old cities and be able to imagine that it was ten thousand years ago and others were around him. Others like him.... Ruins. Ruins covered by dirt, and no one of the present race would even bother about uncovering them. Prior and Walden looked at each other and smiled. "Did you tell him?" the caretaker telepathed. "No. I thought we'd surprise him. I knew all the rest would disappoint him."