for too long a period...." Ashe shook his head.

"You have been in Operation Retrograde from the start, and we've been
remarkably successful----"

"Operating in a different way, educating picked men to return to certain
points in history where their particular temperaments and
characteristics fitted the roles they were selected to play, yes. And
even then we had our percentage of failures. But to try this--returning
people not physically into time, but _mentally and emotionally_ into
prototypes of their ancestors--that's something else again. The Apaches
have volunteered, and they've been passed by the psychologists and the
testers. But they're Americans of today, not tribal nomads of two or
three hundred years ago. If you break down some barriers, you might just
end up breaking them all."

Kelgarries was scowling. "You mean--they might revert utterly, have no
contact with the present at all?"

"That's just what I do mean. Education and training, yes, but full
awakening of racial memories, no. The two branches of conditioning
should go slowly and hand in hand, otherwise--real trouble!"

"Only we no longer have the time to go slow. I'm certain Ruthven will be
able to push this through--with Waldour's report to back him."

"Then we'll have to warn Fox and the rest. They must be given a choice
in the matter."

"Ruthven said that would be done." The colonel did not sound convinced
of that.

Ashe snorted. "If I hear him telling them, I'll believe it!"

"I wonder whether we can...."

Ashe half turned and frowned at the colonel. "What do you mean?"

"You said yourself that we had our failures in time travel. We expected
those, accepted them, even when they hurt. When we asked for volunteers
for this project we had to make them understand that there was a heavy
element of risk involved. Three teams of recruits--the Eskimos from
Point Barren, the Apaches, and the Islanders--all picked because their
people had a high survival rating in the past, to be colonists on widely
different types of planets. Well, the Eskimos and the Islanders aren't
matched to any of the worlds on those snooped tapes, but Topaz is
waiting for the Apaches. And we may have to move them in there in a
hurry. It's a rotten gamble any way you see it!"

"I'll appeal directly to the council."

Kelgarries shrugged. "All right. You have my backing."

"But you believe such an effort hopeless?"

"You know the red-tape merchants. You'll have to move