Bancroft stepped over to the door and locked it. He gestured at the guards, who spread themselves around the walls, their guns aimed inward. He was shaking ever so faintly and his eyes glittered as with fever. "Sit down," he said. "_There!_" Dalgetty took the indicated armchair. It was deep and soft. It would be hard to spring out of quickly. Elena took a seat opposite him, poised on its edge, the tommy-gun in her lap. It was suddenly very still in the room. Bancroft went over to the desk and fumbled with a humidor. He didn't look up. "So you caught him," he said. "Yes," replied Elena. "After he caught me first." "How did you--turn the tables?" Bancroft took out a cigar and bit the end off savagely. "What happened?" "I was in a cave, resting," she said tonelessly. "He rose out of the water and grabbed me. He'd been hiding underneath longer than anybody would have thought possible. He forced me out to a rock in the bay there--you know it? We hid till sundown, when he opened up on your men on that beach. He killed them all. "I'd been tied but I'd managed to rub the strips loose. It was just a piece off his shirt he tied me with. While he was shooting I grabbed a stone and clipped him behind the ear. I dragged him to shore while he was still out, took one of the guns lying there and marched him here." "Good work." Bancroft inhaled raggedly. "I'll see that you get a proper bonus for this, Elena. But what else? You said...." "Yes." Her gaze was steady on him. "We talked, out there in the bay. He wanted to convince me I should help him. Tom--he isn't human." "Eh?" Bancroft's heavy form jerked. With an effort he steadied himself. "What do you mean?" "That muscular strength and speed, and telepathy. He can see in the dark and hold his breath longer than any man. No, he isn't human." Bancroft looked at Dalgetty's motionless form. The prisoner's eyes clashed with his and it was he who looked away again. "A telepath, did you say?" "Yes," she answered. "Do you want to prove it, Dalgetty?" There was stillness in the room. After a moment Dalgetty spoke. "You were thinking, Bancroft, 'All right, damn you, can you read my mind? Go ahead and try it and you'll know what I'm thinking about you.' The rest was obscenities." "A guess," said Bancroft. There was sweat on his cheeks. "Just a good guess. Try again." Another pause, then, "'Ten, nine, seven, A, B, M, Z, Z ...' Shall I keep on?" Dalgetty asked quietly. "No," muttered Bancroft. "No, that's enough. What are you?" "He told me," put in Elena. "You're going to have trouble believing it. I'm not sure if I believe it myself. But he's from another star." Bancroft opened his lips and shut them again. The massive head shook in denial. "He is--from Tau Ceti," said Elena. "They're way beyond us. It's the thing people have been speculating about for the last hundred years."