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The grounds of the College of Ancients in Washenn are nothing if not sedate Austerity is the key word, and there is sorave about the clustered knots of novices taking their evening stroll aht trespass Occasionally the green-robed figure of a Senior Ancient raciously
And, once in a long while, the High Minister hiht appear
But not as now, at a half run, al of hands, oblivious to the cautious stares that followed hihtly raised eyebrows
He burst into the Legislative Hall by the private entrance and broke into an open run down the e ramp The door that he thundered at opened at the foot pressure of the one within, and the High Minister entered
His Secretary scarcely looked up froet Field-shielded Televisor, listening intently and allowing his eyes to rove over a quire or so of official-looking coh Minister rapped sharply on the desk "What is this? What is going on?"
The Secretary&039;s eyes flicked coldly at his, Your Excellency"
"Greet h Minister i on"
"In a sentence, our man has escaped"
"You mean the man as treated by Shekt with the Synapsifier-the Outsider-the spy-the one on the farm outside Chica-"
It is uncertain how ht have rattled out had not the Secretary interrupted with an indifferent "Exactly"
"Why was I not informed? Why am I never informed?"
"Ied I substituted, therefore, to the best of ements when you wish to do without me Now, I&039;ll not have it I will not permit myself to be by-passed and sidetracked I will not-"
"We delay," was the reply at ordinary speaking voluhed, hovered uncertainly at further speech, then said mildly:
"What are the details, Balkis?"
"Scarcely any After twoto show for it, this man Schwartz left-was followed-and was lost"
"How lost?"
"We are not sure, but there is a further fact Our agent, Natter, ht His alternates set out after hihway toward Chica and found hihway-quite dead"
The High Minister paled "The Outsider had killed hih we cannot say certainly There were no visible signs of violence other than a look of agony on the dead face There will be an autopsy, of course He ht have died of a stroke just at that inconvenient moment"
"That would be an incredible coincidence"
"So I think, " was the cool response, "but if Schwartz killed hi You see, Your Excellency, it seemed quite obvious from our previous analysis that Schwartz would make for Chica in order to see Shekt, and Natter was found dead on the highway between the Maren farm and Chica We therefore sent out an alarht"
"Schwartz?" incredulously
"Certainly"
"Why didn&039;t you say that ied "Your Excellency, there is more important work to be done I said that Schwartz was in our hands Well, he was caught quickly and easily, and that fact does not seem to me to jibe very ith the death of Natter How could he be at once so clever as to detect and kill Natter-a most capableand openly enter a factory, without disguise, to find a job?&039;
"Is that what he did?"
"That&039;s what he didThere are two possible thoughts that this gives rise to, therefore Either he has already transmitted such information as he has to Shekt or Arvardan, and has now let hiht in order to divert out attention, or else other agents are involved, e have not detected and who In either case, we must not be overconfident"
"I don&039;t know," said the High Minister helplessly, his handsoets too deep for me"
Balkis smiled with more than a trace of contempt and volunteered a statement "You have an appointment four hours from noith Professor Bel Arvardan"
"I have? Why? What am I to say to him? I don&039;t want to see him"
"Relax You must see him, Your Excellency It seems obvious to me that since the date of co, heyou for perate the Forbidden Areas Ennius warned us he would, and Ennius must know exactly the details of this comedy I suppose that you are able to return him froth for froth in this matter and to counter pretense with pretense"
The High Minister bowed his head "Well, I shall try"
Bel Arvardan arrived in good time, and was able to look about him To a man well acquainted with the architectural triue of Ancients could scarcely seeranite, fashioned in an archaic style To one as an archaeologist as well, it e austerity, the proper hoe way of life It&039;s very pri back of eyes to the far past
And Arvardan&039;s thoughts slipped away once again His two-month tour about Earth&039;s western continents had proven not quite-as He found hi back to that day at Chica
He was instantly angry with hiiously ungrateful, a couilty? And yet
Had hehim to be an Outsider, like that officer who had insulted her and whose arrogant brutality he had repaid with a broken arm? After all, how could he kno much she had already suffered at the hands of Outsiders? And then to find out, like that, without any softening of the blow, that he was one
If he had been more patientWhy had he broken it off so brutally? He didn&039;t even ree! His memory was ordinarily better than that Was it an unconscious effort to forget?
Well, that et! What was there to reirl
She was a nurse in a hospital Suppose he tried to locate the hospital It had been just a vague blot in the night when he parted frohborhood of that Foodoht and broke into a thousand angry fragained? She was an Earthgirl Pretty, sweet, soh Minister was entering, and Arvardan was glad It meant relief from that day in Chica But, deep in his hts, that is-always did
As for the High Minister, his robe was new and glistening in its freshness His forehead showed no trace of haste or doubt; perspiration er to it
And the conversation was friendly, indeed Arvardan was at pains to reat h Minister was as careful to express the thorough gratification that htenment of the Imperial Government
Arvardan expounded on the iy to Ireat conclusion that all huh Minister agreed blandly and pointed out that Earth had long held such to be the case and could only hope that the tiht turn theory into practice
Arvardan smiled very shortly at that and said, "It is for that very purpose, Your Excellency, that I have approached you The differences between Earth and soely, perhaps, on differing ways of thinking Still, a good deal of friction could be removed if it could be shown that Earthmen were not different, racially, from other Galactic citizens"
"And hoould you propose to do that, sir?"
"That is not easy to explain in a word As Your Excellencyare coer Theory and the Radiation Theory"
"I am acquainted with a layer Theory, of course, involves the notion that the various types of hu independently, have intermarried in the very early, scarcely documented days of primitive space travel A conception like that is necessary to account for the fact that Humans are so alike one to the other now"
"Yes," coh Minister dryly, "and such a conception also involves the necessity of having several hundred, or thousand, separately evolved beings of a more or less huically that intere is possible"
"True," replied Arvardan with satisfaction "You have put your finger on an inore it and adhere firer Theory, which would, of course, imply the possibility that in isolated portions of the Galaxy there ht be subspecies of humanity who remained different, didn&039;t interh Minister
"Earth is considered an example The Radiation Theory, on the other hand-"
"Considers us all descendants of one planetary group of humans"
"Exactly"
"My people," said the High Minister, "because of the evidence 0(our own history, and of certain writings which are sacred to us and cannot be exposed to the view of Outsiders, are of the belief that Earth itself is the original home of humanity"