Carroll smiled in a superior fashion. "What I'm going to do to try this out," he said. "I'm going elsewhere with a second model and establish my own line of communication. "So far as I know the only other ones are in the hands of your people--and normal, happy, serious-minded folk seldom call their enemies on the telephone to pass the time of day. So, Rhine, if you'll stay here--" "I've no place to go," she told him. "I'll stay. You'll not be long?" "I've got to build it first," he said. "I've got the parts here but it's not assembled." "But--" "It's 'tinkertoy' fashion in a suitcase," he said. "I obviously can't carry a six-foot circle of half-inch copper tubing fastened to a podium of heavy metal through the streets of Ladysmith without trouble. I'm leaving tonight, Rhine. You wait for me here." "I'll wait," she said with a smile. * * * * * Doctor Pollard blinked when Miss Farragut announced James Forrest Carroll. "By all means," he said, and then sat back to see what Carroll had to offer. Carroll came to the point at once. "I have proof," he said. "You have proof," smiled Pollard, "but you leave too many holes in the matrix." "Meaning?" asked Carroll. "From time to time," replied Pollard, "men have come forward with the idea that all Sol is being guarded or watched or kept suppressed by some alien culture. Charles Fort said 'Maybe we're Property!' and others have had the same idea. "This alien culture always is superior of mind and body and capable of furthering any evidence to dispute its being. The discoverer is hunted down and chased but usually eludes the aliens long enough before he is caught to tell the world about it. "Now," continued the doctor, "aside from the fact that all stories must have some sort of sensible ending your tale misses one vital point that all such tales seem to. "That is just the simple fact that these omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent beings who have kept the world in ignorance for twenty thousand years have not the intelligence to slay the single discoverer!" Carroll smiled. "I was not slain because I was useful to them. I've spent weeks with them." Carroll spent the next hour telling Dr. Pollard of his experiences among the aliens. He omitted only the truth about Rhinegallis. Pollard's comment in his own shorthand was, "Perfect self-justification." "Now," said Carroll. "May I show you something that I've stolen from them?" "Of course." Carroll opened his suitcase and set the metal podium on the floor. He unrolled the length of silver-plated copper tubing and shaped it into a circle. He fastened the terminals to the podium with thumbscrews. Then he snapped the switch and the shimmering plane appeared. "Wonderful," said Pollard hollowly. "But what is it?" Carroll smiled. "You are a hard man to convince," he said. "But now that I have shown you this, I shall show you one of them!" Carroll stepped into the shimmering plane and disappeared.