The hawk-faced man said, "I'd like to work with you on it, Barlow. My name's Ryan-Ngana." He put out his hand. Barlow looked closely at the hand, then at the man's face. "Ryan what?" "Ngana." "That sounds like an African name." "It is. My mother's father was a Watusi." Barlow didn't take the hand. "I thought you looked pretty dark. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I don't think I'd be at my best working with you. There must be somebody else just as well qualified, I'm sure." The psychist made a facial sign to Ryan-Ngana that meant, "Steady _yourself_, boy!" "Very well," Ryan-Ngana told Barlow. "We'll see what arrangement can be made." "It's not that I'm prejudiced, you understand. Some of my best friends--" "Mr. Barlow, don't give it another thought. Anybody who could pick on the lemming analogy is going to be useful to us." And so he would, thought Ryan-Ngana, alone in the office after Tinny-Peete had taken Barlow up to the helicopter stage. So he would. Poprob had exhausted every rational attempt and the new Poprobattacklines would have to be irrational or sub-rational. This creature from the past with his lemming legends and his improved building lots would be a fountain of precious vicious self-interest. Ryan-Ngana sighed and stretched. He had to go and run the San Francisco subway. Summoned early from the Pole to study Barlow, he'd left unfinished a nice little theorem. Between interruptions, he was slowly constructing an n-dimensional geometry whose foundations and superstructure owed no debt whatsoever to intuition. * * * * * Upstairs, waiting for a helicopter, Barlow was explaining to Tinny-Peete that he had nothing against Negroes, and Tinny-Peete wished he had some of Ryan-Ngana's imperturbability and humor for the ordeal. The helicopter took them to International Airport where, Tinny-Peete explained, Barlow would leave for the Pole. The man from the past wasn't sure he'd like a dreary waste of ice and cold. "It's all right," said the psychist. "A civilized layout. Warm, pleasant. You'll be able to work more efficiently there. All the facts at your fingertips, a good secretary--" "I'll need a pretty big staff," said Barlow, who had learned from thousands of deals never to take the first offer. "I meant a private, confidential one," said Tinny-Peete readily, "but you can have as many as you want. You'll naturally have top-primary-top priority if you really have a workable plan." "Let's not forget this dictatorship angle," said Barlow.