So when I found next morning that every stellar-reporter in the class area was missing and that Dimples and her entire class had gone with them, I did not have to act astonished. About a third of the Institute--nearly a hundred students--were in that class, doing nothing else but build a complete catalogue of the stars and their planetary systems by means of the stellar-reporters. And the whole lot had gone! David Adam Smith did not believe me, either, until he saw for himself. Then he sat down to work through the firing calibrators to find out where the stellar-reporters had been sent. He waved me away. I went straight to the cellar beneath his private labs and reconverted John. He stepped off the maxima plate swiftly before the crystal could materialize him. "Hey," I said, "you've reversed it." "Naturally. It's a minor adjustment in the time-lag. Otherwise there would always have to be a second person present before you could get out of a crystal. We think that's what went wrong with poor Burns Gilbert. But we'll never know, I'm afraid. Let's get on." We set the power cutter to work on the cellar ceiling. It was only designed to cut rock specimens small enough to be brought back in the stellar-reporters that carried it, but after two hours we had a hole right up into the private labs. I lifted John Thay and followed him up. * * * * * Dimples was right. There was a long row of crystals in a nutrient tank against one wall, arranged so that it could not be seen into from the windows. About fifty crystals were racked there and each had a six-inch figure in it. I walked over to look at them with John. "These aren't the ones I sent!" John said. "They're not?" "Not one." We looked at the line in silence. I had gotten used to handling filled crystals, but the sight of all these human beings, miniature and watching us, making waving motions so for as they could within the lattice of their crystals--this was unnerving. "No," John Thay repeated. "These are not ours. But that one there is the bubble dancer we were expelled for bringing here!" I looked at the little figure, pink against the clear quartz. "Who are the others?" I asked. John Thay walked briskly down the line scooping them up. "Never mind that for a moment, Morry. Just help me collect every one of these." I grabbed handfuls of crystals from the rack, stuffing them in my pockets, until between us we had every one. John took a last look to check. Then we dropped through the hole in the floor, down into the cellar. "I had an elaborate plan in mind," he said to me, as we hurried away. "But this changes everything. Is the converter in your truck working?" We shot out into the courtyard. "If you're in a hurry, John, why not use the one there in the cellar?" "Hell, you're right. This has shaken me so much I can hardly think. Quickly, let's get these crystals reconverted." We turned and rushed back to the cellar we had just left.