Did he, she wondered with a strained and baffled curiosity, feel that, too? Or was he always too much the scientist to be just a plain man looking upon her ... seeing her ... not as a friend, but as a woman? The sound of crisp, firm footsteps spelled an end to her thinking. She whirled to the doorway. "Gary! You're back!" Then her heart chilled within her at the look on his face. Never had she seen Gary Lane like this. His features were hard as if they had been cast in a mold, then frozen. His lips were whitely set, his eyes twin glittering flints of anger. "Yes," he said harshly, "I'm back. It's all over. We're done. Finished. Washed up." Dr. Bryant rose from his chair swiftly. "What do you mean, Gary? The Council didn't--?" "Oh, didn't they?" Lane's bark was a mirthless shard of laughter. "They turned me down cold. Said our conclusions were erroneous, my theory a fantastic figment of the imagination. The fools! The everlasting damned fools! Don't they realize they're condemning a universe to oblivion?" Dr. Anjers patted the younger man's shoulder soothingly, his bright cherubic face soberly consoling. "I'm sorry, my boy. But I warned you it would be difficult. Men see no farther than the ends of their noses." "Maybe not," grated Gary, "but they _hear_ ... oh, God, how they _hear_! That's what killed our chances. Somehow or other they got a rumor of what was in the wind. They had been warned in advance of who I was and what I wanted; when I started explaining, showing my photographs, they just sat back and smirked at me with that '_Yes, yes, we know all about it; isn't it a pity that one so young should be deranged?_' look on their smug, complacent faces." "_Heard_ of it?" cried Nora. "But how could they have heard of it?" Lane shook his head doggedly. "That's what I've been asking myself ever since I left the Council Hall. To the best of my knowledge, not a living soul knows our secret except us five." "And," reminded Dr. Anjers, "one other." "One other?" "The marauder in the observatory." * * * * * Lane was silent for a moment. Then he nodded. "That's right. I'd almost forgotten. _Their_ ambassador. It's his diabolic hand again. It must be. Lord, if we had only caught him that day. If we only had some idea who he _was_--" The door opened again, and Flick Muldoon burst in jubilantly. "Great howling snakes, folks, look who I found wandering around down on the streets like a roaming comet! That old star-shooting son-of-a-gun himself--Oh, golly, Gary! You're back! What'd they say, pal? Do we get the ship? Is everything set?" "Not set," corrected Gary. "Settled!" And told him what he had told the others. Muldoon's ruddy face fell. "Well, I'll be damned!" he whispered. "And to think Earth's government set them dumb lunks up in power to rule mankind's affairs! What are we going to do now? We can't give up just because--"