e fragrant, foot-long cigars produced only in the Hadriacum
Lowlands.

"Sit down," commanded the Chief in a high, piping voice.

Fancher swallowed and sat, facing his superior across the big desk. The
Chief opened a drawer, took out another of the long cigars, and handed
it to Fancher. Fancher did not like cigars, but he had never dared say
so to the Chief. He lit it gingerly, coughed at his first inhalation,
and smoked at it dutifully and unhappily.

"You recognized this man certainly as Dark Kensington?" asked the Chief.

"Well ..." Fancher began, and started coughing again. The Chief fixed
him with an unwinking green stare. When the coughing spell ended,
Fancher sat silent, his eyes stinging with tears, fumbling at what he
wanted to say.

"You knew Dark Kensington before his disappearance twenty-five years
ago," said the Chief, with a trace of impatience in his tone. "I am told
that you saw this man and talked to him. You are qualified to recognize
Dark Kensington. Is this man Dark Kensington, or not?"

"Well," said Fancher again, "the man was walking alone across the
desert, and when someone picked him up he asked how he could find the
Childress Barber College, and of course our men heard of it and went out
to--"

"I have received a full report on the man's appearance and our initial
contact with him. I asked you a question."

"Well, Chief, it's a peculiar thing. If this man, as he is now, had
reappeared twenty-five years ago, I'd _know_ it was Dark Kensington. But
he looks exactly as Dark did when he disappeared, not one day older. And
he doesn't remember a thing beyond his disappearance except events of
the past two weeks, he says.

"Yet his memories of Dark's activities before his disappearance are
unquestionably accurate and clear. It's as though Dark had been put on
ice at the time of his disappearance and just now thawed out, without
any aging or memory during the interim."

"Perhaps he was," said the Chief dryly. "But is it possible that this
man, looking so much like Dark Kensington, could have studied
Kensington's personality and activities carefully and be posing as
Kensington?"

"No, sir," said Fancher promptly. "Dark and I were very close friends at
one time. He remembers that, although he had difficulty recognizing me
since I'm so much older. We went through some experiences together that
I never told to anyone, and I'm sure he didn't. He remembers them in
every detail. Like the way we tra