“An experienced Time Traveler, you had the customary indoctrination--costume, mores, language, comprehension levels, and so on. Your equipment was made in accordance with careful specifications in the duplicating shops.” Urs spoke for the first time. To his surprise, his voice came out strong and clear. “May I request, sir, that the record show that one item of equipment was wrongly made? The wand. Instead of the crude metal of the time I visited, it was made of our alloy, impregnium.” “That fact has been noted,” the chairman said gravely. He glanced around at his colleagues. “There was an acknowledged error in the shops. The situation has been corrected.” “Thank you.” You never argued with the System Policy Board. You thought very carefully before you even asked a question. Mostly, you just listened respectfully, even when they were methodically destroying you. For the Board was incorruptible. It was as nearly infallible as a human institution could be. It represented something man had sought for ages--completely impartial justice. There was a kind of inevitability in such trials which--tedious though some of them were--never failed to attract enthralled watchers all over the galaxy. And none had ever watched more tensely than the silent men in blue uniforms before the big life screen at the Time Traveler’s Bureau. The chairman’s old eyes lingered on Urs. “You are held responsible here only for your actions in the region called Great Britain. The error you mentioned, however, is pertinent to this inquiry. We have carefully examined your personal experience tapes. They reveal you were aware of the mistake in the metal in time to take corrective action before the rule was broken. This you failed to do.” In spite of his effort at self-control, Urs trembled. He suddenly wanted to drown out those slow, logical phrases, to shout, “When did any of you ever travel in time? You sit here in the splendor of your logic--mental and physical light-years away from the event. You can’t conceive how crude and disorganized those days were. Do you think it’s easy to enter a world like that? It takes all the skill and care and self-discipline you can command. And no man who ever lived could exercise the control the manuals call for. “If you only knew what really goes on in time exploration! You _think_ you do. You read the manuals, you examine the rules of policy, you see the personal experience tapes we turn in. But did you know that most of the time we manage to doctor those tapes, to protect ourselves? “Ah, if you only knew....” * * * * * Wearing light armor, Urs had been riding on a lonely trail. In that time, in that place, it was a risky business--even for an Explorer. And his luck ran out. Brigands caught up with him, charging on their wiry, tangle-haired horses.