He turned and saw Laurine and Valnar standing at the other side of the bed. Laurine's hand was bandaged and her face scratched but otherwise she seemed uninjured. She smiled at him. "That was close," said Valnar and Barlow looked at him. The strange man had entirely recovered his good humor and confidence. Barlow saw that he was again wearing the plaque. "Did we all go crazy?" Barlow asked. "Just a bit more than usual," Valnar grinned. "I got to thinking about what you told me about the Unamenables, and came to the conclusion that the Mental Ray only controlled the average person. Those who varied from the norm, either above or below, were affected differently. To them it was an irritant. Haven't you ever thought it odd that all the Unamenables fought Dodson? "So when we were captured because the warden reported our visit, I agreed to help Dodson. He had scientists, anyway. They sure blanked the projector that night. Dodson wanted me to make the projector deadly. I did, then Dodson was quite amused when I suggested that he try it out on you Unamenables. But instead of killing you, it aroused you to intense activity. The only thing that went wrong was that Dodson crossed me, and the ray was too strong for me to compensate. I was laid out cold." "We've won, Joel," Laurine interrupted. "Dodson is dead. And we've released all the members from the prisons, and destroyed the transmitters." "Yeah," agreed Valnar. "My job here is done, so I'll be getting along. I want to kill Dodson again, this time personally." Barlow forced Laurine to sit on the edge of the bed. Then held her hand to make sure that she stayed there, and faced Valnar. "Why don't you stay here?" he asked. Valnar shook his head. "I got to see about getting home," he said, starting to go. "So long." "Wait!" called Barlow. "Where are you going this time?" he asked when Valnar halted. "All the way back to the beginning?" "I've already been there," said Valnar. "That was my first trip. I had a car then, but the elemental chaos ruined it and I was barely able to get away in time." A sudden thought struck Barlow. He grinned at Valnar. Valnar frowned and demanded, "Well?" "Remember your simile of time to a growing tree with a lot of branches?" Valnar nodded and waited. "And remember how you said that you were creating new branches every time you stopped?" "Uh-huh," Valnar grunted impatiently. "Well, I'll bet you haven't been sliding up and down the branches of that tree at all. You've been leaping from one to another like a monkey. And you weren't in your own past before you started, so you can't be now. You aren't in your own time at all. When you leaped back to elemental chaos, you planted this tree. You're climbing around the wrong tree, fella." Valnar started, then stared. "I guess I'll stay here for a while after all," he muttered as he turned and went out. Laurine was watching Barlow. "You were trying to sell him something then," she accused.