faced him on the screen was totally different.
His skin registered as pale--cream-colored--and his face was far more
human in shape, though it was hairless as was the smooth dome of his
skull. When one became accustomed to that egg slickness, the stranger
was not bad-looking, and he was wearing a suit which matched the one
Ross had taken from the lifeboat.

This one did not attempt to say anything. Instead, he stared at Ross
long and measuringly, his eyes growing colder and less friendly with
every second of that examination. Ross had resented Kelgarries back at
the project, but the major could not match Baldy for the sheer weight of
unpleasant warning he could pack into a look. Ross might have been
startled by Furry-face, but now his stubborn streak arose to meet this
implied challenge. He found himself breathing hard and glaring back with
an intensity which he hoped would get across and prove to Baldy that he
would not have everything his own way if he proposed to tangle with
Ross.

His preoccupation with the stranger on the screen betrayed Ross into the
hands of those from below. He heard their attack on the barricade too
late. By the time he turned around, the cork of seats was heaved up and
a gun was pointing at his middle. His hands went up in small reluctant
jerks as that threat held him where he was. Two of the fur-clad Reds
climbed into the control chamber.

Ross recognized the leader as Ashe's double, the man he had followed
across time. He blinked for just an instant as he faced Ross and then
shouted an order at his companion. The other spun Murdock around,
bringing his hands down behind him to clamp his wrists together. Once
again Ross fronted the screen and saw Baldy watching the whole scene
with an expression suggesting that he had been shocked out of his
complacent superiority.

"Ah...." Ross's captors were staring at the screen and the unearthly man
there. Then one flung himself at the control panel and his hands whipped
back and forth, restoring to utter silence both screen and room.

"What are you?" The man who might have been Ashe spoke slowly in the
Beaker tongue, drilling Ross with his stare as if by the force of his
will alone he could pull the truth out of his prisoner.

"What do you think I am?" Ross countered. He was wearing the uniform of
Baldy, and he had clearly established contact with the time owners of
this ship. Let that worry the Red!

But they did not try to answer him. At a sig