I'll say it was, with a bang! And yet, not just that either. For you may depend on it that no station was sending out such stuff. Rog Tanlu shut the thing off, and the silver of that globe became dead black. I started eating. There was nothing but coarse salt to go along with the bird--the kind you can scrape off rocks near those mud-salt swamps--but the meat tasted okay. The others sat down and we finished the three birds in no time. "How'd you bag 'em?" I asked Rog Tanlu, for I hadn't seen anything of a gun, and black pheasants aren't easy to knock over with a stone. Rog Tanlu smiled and wiped his hands on that knit-silk outfit he was wearing. All the time during that meal he'd been smiling, squinting up at the sky and breathing deep--for all the world as though he'd never been on an outdoor party before. "With this," he said, in answer to my question, picking up something from the rock near where he was sitting--something that looked like a black fountain-pen--for there didn't seem to be any pockets in his clothing. Again he squinted up at the sky. Just then a buzzard came flying along slowlike, pretty high over our heads. Rog Tanlu pointed that pen affair up at the bird. A thin little ray of light flashed up--another and another. They wavered around for a second, getting centered. And suddenly that buzzard started tumbling out of the sky and crashed into the bushes near us. Doc Champ and I looked dumbly at each other. And then we stared at Rog Tanlu. Grinning like a magician who has just pulled a fancy trick, he held that ray-gun out for us to look at. "What did you mean when you said you had called us?" asked Doc Champ, in that quiet way of his. "I had to get in communication with someone in this Age--someone who could understand," said Rog Tanlu. "I chose you" (he was, of course, speaking to Doc Champ) "because of your training and comprehension of the Past. So I called you with the psycho-coil on the audio-visiscope, by which means mental suggestions may be conveyed." Doc Champ swallowed hard. "What country are you from?" "Iralnard," said Rog Tanlu. "A nation which does not exist on earth today, but which was contemporary with the beginning of the last Ice Age. At that time my people occupied this very land. I am, as you might say, a refugee from the Ice Age--the first to come through. But I believe that others will follow. A number of my people. This possible migration cannot help but result in discord with the present holders of the land, unless some friendly agreement can be established. So I called you." By this time I was up to my ears. I grabbed Doc Champ's arm. "Doc," I groaned, "are we awake? Is this guy joking? Or what's the answer?" Doc pushed me away. "I shall make everything clear," said Rog Tanlu.