"No, I won't forget," Dot said. "'Til next time, then. Good-bye." Dot hung up, and the room seemed suddenly to have become cold. Intuition was one thing--she wouldn't be a woman if she didn't trust that. But imagination was of course quite another. It had been simply an unexpected half-minute phone-call. Short, almost too short, if she were any judge of the ladies' society type. Nonsense.... She sat down. And the chair was cold. _Nerves, girl, that's all. Like the night you saw the man in the shadows outside the house and Doug wasn't home from the banquet yet, and it turned out to be the neighborhood cop waiting for his beat relief...._ She had to forget it, get the message to Doug. What would she say, now? "As per your instructions--" _But Madame Blair--!_ Damn! This was ridiculous--pure imagination--since when was a culture society a thing to get goose-pimples over? That was all it was of course. Just the knowledge of the crate downstairs.... God the house was quiet. She reached for the phone. And again, the door-signal chimed. She half-walked, half-ran to answer it; tripped, caught herself. It chimed again. Then somehow she had the door open, and there were four men in white uniforms standing before it. "Madame Blair, if you will please come with us." "No, I'm sorry,--I can't. Why, what are you here for?" "You received a telecall several minutes ago, did you not, Madame?" He phrased it as a question, but she knew that it was a statement. "Why, yes I did. A social call--" "We know that it was not, Madame Blair. If you will accompany us please." They stood there, unmoving. "I--I don't understand. My culture society, if it is important for some reason that you know...." "Precisely. We've known for some time about the society, madame. We are sorry that we have at length linked you with it. Now if you will accompany us please." There was no choice. She did not want to think of what might happen if she ran. CHAPTER XIII "Inside Venus compensation limit, sir. They've taken over. Inversion in three minutes; jet-down at NMHQ in twelve. Secondary check please, sergeant."