me. Kendricks
spoke swiftly to the girl, in one of the Darkovan languages Jay didn't
understand, and then drew Jay aside, out of earshot. He said in a shaken
voice, "Jay, I didn't know--I wouldn't have believed--you're _Doctor
Allison_? Good Lord--Jason!"

And then he moved fast. "What's the matter? Oh, hell, Jay, don't faint
on me!"

* * * * *

Jay was aware that he didn't come out of it too bravely, but anyone who
blamed him (he thought resentfully) should try it on for size; going to
sleep in a comfortably closed-in office and waking up on a cliff at the
outer edges of nowhere. His hand hurt; he saw that it was bleeding and
flexed it experimentally, trying to determine that no tendons had been
injured. He rapped, "How did this happen?"

"Sir, keep your voice down--or speak Darkovan!"

Jay blinked again. Kendricks was still the only familiar thing in a
strangely vertiginous universe. The Spaceforce man said huskily. "Before
heaven, Jay, I hadn't any idea--and I've known you how long? Eight, nine
years?"

Jay said, "That idiot Forth!" and swore, the colorless profanity of an
indoor man.

Somebody shouted, "Jason!" in an imperative voice, and Kendricks said
shakily, "Jay, if they see you--you literally are not the same man!"

"Obviously not." Jay looked at the tent, one pole still unpitched.
"Anyone in there?"

"Not yet." Kendricks almost shoved him inside. "I'll tell them--I'll
tell them something." He took a radiant from his pocket, set it down and
stared at Allison in the flickering light, and said something profane.
"You'll--you'll be all right here?"

Jay nodded. It was all he could manage. He was keeping a tight hold on
his nerve; if it went, he'd start to rave like a madman. A little time
passed, there were strange noises outside, and then there was a polite
cough and a man walked into the tent.

He was obviously a Darkovan aristocrat and looked vaguely familiar,
though Jay had no conscious memory of seeing him before. Tall and
slender, he possessed that perfect and exquisite masculine beauty
sometimes seen among Darkovans, and he spoke to Jay familiarly but with
surprising courtesy:

"I have told them you are not to be disturbed for a moment, that your
hand is worse than we believed. A surgeon's hands are delicate things,
Doctor Allison, and I hope that yours are not badly injured. Will you
let me look?"

Jay Allison drew back his hand automatically, then, conscio