"My intentions were, of course, to provide an avenue of escape from the Ice Age we were entering, for I knew it wouldn't last indefinitely. But I needed some sort of proof as to what conditions would be like in half a million years before I could offer the Ice Stone as a possible refuge. With Eyoaoc Eiioiei's help I managed to obtain several chemically depicted approximations of the nearby landscape as it would be likely to appear after the Ice Age. "These were very beautiful--or thus they seem to me--for you must remember that in my time no one had ever seen trees or grass or flowers growing naturally in the open. "We had just completed all this when, as we were working one day here in the laboratory, my assistant sensed a snooper-ray on us. I myself am not sensitive to an audio-visiscope emanation--sometimes called the 'snooper-ray'--but Eyoaoc Eiioiei sensed it, and he warned me. "However, the warning came too late. Darlu Marc, my enemy, was the spy. Within a few hours I was thrown in prison. Eyoaoc Eiioiei escaped. He was almost immune to the outside cold. "Darlu Marc had inveigled himself in with certain politicians and, as a reward for reporting my misconduct, he received charge of my laboratory. But I knew that the Ice Stone was safe, being practically indestructible. "Shortly thereafter, word came to me in prison that a company had been formed under Marc--a company that was selling tickets to the poorer class of Iralnard City, entitling the holder to emigrate through the Ice Stone. Their slogan was 'Tickets to Paradise.' "Naturally, this injustice made me desperate. I swore that I'd be the first to pass through. In the meantime Eyoaoc Eiioiei had managed to enter Iralnard City, disguised. He was very attached to me. He helped me escape, helped me reach the laboratory. However, at the last moment, we became separated. To avoid recapture I was forced to pass through the Ice Stone alone. "Now, my friends, you know why I am here." Doc was beating his arms to keep from freezing. "If I understand you," he puffed, "that thing"--pointing toward the Ice Stone--"affords a short-cut into the future, by a kind of suspended animation. And once there, you can't go back." "Quite correct." Rog Tanlu seemed pleased. "If I were to pass through it again, in either direction, I would not return to the Ice Age but would take another jump into the future." It sounded simple, as he told it, even to me, and Doc nodded. "What seems queer," he observed, "is about this cold and wind. I understand it's blowing from the outside cliff into the Ice Stone--from way back in the Ice Age--and is only now emerging here. In that case the cube must have swallowed a tremendous amount of air--and energy!"