My self-possession deserted me. I felt as if I stood, small and reeling, under a great empty echoing chamber which was Jay Allison's mind, and that the roof was about to fall in on me. Kyla's image flickered in and out of focus, first infinitely gentle and appealing, then--as if seen at the wrong end of a telescope--far away and sharply incised and as remote and undesirable as any bug underneath a lens. Her hands closed on my shoulders. I put out a groping hand to push her away. "Jason," she implored, "don't--go away from me like that! Talk to me, tell me!" But her words reached me through emptiness.... I knew important things might hang on tomorrow's meeting, Jason alone could come through that meeting, where the Terrans for some reason put him through this hell and damnation and torture ... oh, yes ... the trailmen's fever. Jay Allison pushed the girl's hand away and scowled savagely, trying to collect his thoughts and concentrate them on what he must say and do, to convince the trailmen of their duty toward the rest of the planet. As if they--not even human--could have a sense of duty! With an unaccustomed surge of emotion, he wished he were with the others. Kendricks, now. Jay knew, precisely, why Forth had sent the big, reliable spaceman at his back. And that handsome, arrogant Darkovan--where was he? Jay looked at the girl in puzzlement; he didn't want to reveal that he wasn't quite sure of what he was saying or doing, or that he had little memory of what Jason had been up to. He started to ask, "Where did the Hastur kid go?" before a vagrant logical thought told him that such an important guest would have been lodged with the Old One. Then a wave of despair hit him; Jay realized he did not even speak the trailmen's language, that it had slipped from his thoughts completely. [Illustration: She felt a touch of panic. He was leaving her again.] "You--" he fished desperately for the girl's name, "Kyla. You don't speak the trailmen's language, do you?" "A few words. No more. Why?" She had withdrawn into a corner of the tiny room--still not far from him--and he wondered remotely what his damned alter ego had been up to. With Jason, there was no telling. Jay raised his eyes with a melancholy smile. "Sit down, child. You needn't be frightened." "I'm--I'm trying to understand--" the girl touched him again, evidently trying to conquer her terror. "It isn't easy--when you turn into someone else under my eyes--" Jay saw that she was shaking in real fright.