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the clippings and understood something of the frustratedrage that must have gripped the howling mobs when they killed the twoministers and the Nevada doctor and the Girl Scout leader.

  Janice Wynn straightened from the fireplace, her head tilted as if shewere listening to some sound beyond range of his own hearing.

  "Someone is coming," she said. Her voice had changed as much as herface; her eyes watched him with a remote yet curiously intimatecompassion. "Not our people. It isn't time for them yet."

  She was at the cabin door before he realized that she had moved.

  "Stay here," she ordered. "Don't open the door for anyone. For _anyone_,do you hear?"

  She was gone into the outside darkness.

  Alcorn felt it himself then, the indefinable certainty of approach. Aturbo-copter, then another, slanting down toward his hideaway, twospeeding machines filled with grimly intent men--Jaffers' agents.

  The 'copters landed about a hundred yards away from the cabin. There wasa dragging silence and then a booming, amplified voice.

  "Alcorn, come out!"

  He stood fast, feeling above their tension the swift progress of JaniceWynn through the darkness toward them. She was close to the nearermachine when he felt a sudden veering of her attention, followed thedirection of her probing, and sensed another 'copter angling down out ofthe night.

  Her mental order was as urgent as a shout: _Let no one in. No one!_

  She moved on. The pilot of the third 'copter was only beginning toassume identity to Alcorn's sharpened senses when Janice Wynn drewwithin effective reach of the nearer grounded machine.

  The amplified voice was calling again: "Come out, Alcorn, or we'll haveto--"

  It broke off short in a scream. There was a flurry of shots, a whiteflash in the darkness and a concussion that shook the cabin.

  He felt Janice turn and run purposefully through the darkness toward thesecond 'copter.

  The third machine was dropping in for landing when he identified itspilot.

  "Kitty!" he breathed. "Dear God, Kitty!"

  She was at the door, the terror and tenderness of her cryingoverwhelming his flinching perception. "Philip, let me in! Philipdarling, are you all right?"

  She was inside and in his arms before he could prevent it.

  She clung to him frantically until the effect of his presence calmedher. The terror went out of her eyes slowly, but the tears glistening onher cheeks contradicted her smile of relief.

  "Thank God you're safe, Philip! When I heard on the visinews about Dr.Hagen--"

  Janice Wynn's silent command was violent in Alcorn's head. _Put her outquickly! Do you want her there when your own change comes?_

  He caught Kitty's hands and drew her toward the door.

  "You can't stay here, Kitty. There's no time to explain. I'll call laterand tell you everything."

  She showed her hurt beneath the placidity his gift imposed upon her. "IfI must, Philip. But--"

  He threw open the door. "Don't argue, Kitty. For God's sake, go!"

  * * * * *

  The blast of the second turbo-copter's explosion might have precipitatedthe seizure that took him just then.

  The polar plain sprang up about him, more terribly cold and stark thanever, its clustering buildings and metal machines standing out in suchclear perspective that he was certain he could have put out a hand andtouched them.

  But the people were faceless no longer, except for one that knelt beforethe group in a tense attitude. Janice Wynn stood over that one while itsfeatures filled in slowly, line by line, growing more and more familiaras the face neared identity.

  By the time Alcorn realized that it was his own face, the change wasfully upon him.

  A vast icy wind roared in his ears. A force seized and flung him,distorted and disoriented, to infinity. There was darkness and terrorand then a chorus of calm voices calling reassurance. Pain gripped him,and panic, and finally an ecstasy of remembering that was beyondimagining.

  Dimly, he heard Kitty's screaming. Something struck him furiously on theshoulder and he felt his distant physical body struggle automaticallyfor balance.

  A second blow caught him on the temple and he fell heavily, his newawareness flickering toward unconsciousness. There was a confusion ofvoices about him and Kitty's raw shrilling died away.

  He lay still, secure in the certainty that he was no longer alone.

  Mind after mind brushed his, lightly, yet more warming than any claspingof hands, and with each touch, he identified and embraced an old friendwhose regard was dearer than his own life. He knew who they were. He wasone of them--again.

  _It's over_, Janice Wynn's voice said gently. _Do you remember me now,Filrinn?_

  _Janeen_, he said. He stood up slowly.

  Her green eyes stirred with an emotion that matched his own. It wasincredible that he could ever have forgotten--no matter how thoroughlyhe had absorbed the protective conditioning--the unity between himselfand Janeen.

  _I remember_, he said. The wonder of it still dazed him. _It's good tobe myself again._

  She sighed. _It's good to know why they sent me, instead of one of theothers, to bring you back. You remember that?_

  "I remember," he said aloud, as if he needed to say the words to make ittrue. "We were together before this assignment for two hundred of thesepeople's years. We'll be together again for hundreds more, now thatwe're free to go--for when will we ever find another world that needsattention as this one needed it?"

  * * * * *

  He saw the Earthgirl then, curled limply on the cabin's sofa.

  Her stillness left him alarmed, surprised and ashamed that he should soreadily have forgotten an obligation.

  Her dishevelment, and the heavy brass fireplace poker on the rug besidethe couch, told him the story at once.

  _You came just in time, Janeen. Poor Kitty! You didn't hurt her?_

  Janeen shook her head. _Of course not, Filrinn. I caught her mind beforethe shock of your change could derange it and--conditioned her. She'llsleep until we've gone, and tomorrow Philip Alcorn will be no more thana pale memory._

  _Either my conditioning still lingers or my empathetic index is too high... I'd like her to know the truth about us, Janeen, before we go._

  He knelt beside the couch and smoothed the fair, tousled hair back fromthe Earthgirl's quiet face.

  "I'm sorry it had to be like this, Kitty," he said. He spoke aloud, buthis mind touched hers below the level of consciousness. He felt theslow, bewildered surge of response. "It'll help you to forget, perhaps,if you know that we came here from a star system you'll never hear of inyour lifetime, to study your people and to see what we could do to helpthem.

  "Alike in form, we are so far apart in nature that you could not haveborne our real presence, so we buried our real selves under a mask ofconditioning as deeply as we buried our ship under the ice of yourplanet's pole. After ten years of study, our conditioning was to liftslowly, so that we would realize who and what we were. But you are morelike us than we had thought, and with some of us, the conditioning wastoo strong to break.

  "It may help to know that your likeness to us will bring our peopletogether again when the time is right, that your children's children maymeet us on equal terms."

  He lifted her from the couch and carried her to her 'copter. He set themachine's controls to automatic and stepped back.

  "Good-by, Kitty," he said.

  Janeen was waiting for him in the cabin.

  _The auxiliary shuttle is on its way to pick us up, Filrinn. We'll begone within the hour._

  They stood together, linking their minds, sharing an ecstasy in themeshing of identities that was greater than any physical fulfillment.

  _But we have that, too_, Janeen said for his ears alone. And then, tothe calm, smiling faces that lingered in the background of their mingledconsciousness: _Leave us._

  The faces withdrew and left them--like children just grown to awarenessof thei
r own marvelous gifts--alone.