s had carried them without
cold-sleep, but people forget easily. The truth is buried in the records
of those early voyages.

"As the Mentorians grew more important to us, we began to regret the
policy, but by that time the Mentorians themselves believed it so firmly
that when we tried the experiment of carrying them through the shift
into warp-drive, they died of fear--pure suggestion. I tried it with
you, Meta, because I knew Bart's presence would reassure you. The others
were given an inert sedative they believed to be the cold-sleep drug.
How are you feeling, Bart?"

"Fine--but wondering what's going to happen."

"You won't be hurt," Vorongil said, quickly. Then: "You don't believe
me, do you?"

"I don't, sir. David Briscoe did what I did, and he's dead. So are three
other men."

"Men do strange things from fear--men and Lhari. Your people, as I said
before, have a strange history. It scares us. Can you guarantee that
some, at least, of your people wouldn't try to come and take the
star-drive by force? We left a man on Lharillis who thought nothing of
killing twenty-four of us. I suppose the captain of the _Multiphase_,
knowing he had gravely violated Lhari laws, knowing that Briscoe's
report might touch off an intergalactic war between men and Lhari--well,
I suppose he felt that half a dozen deaths were better than half a
million. I'm not defending him. Just explaining, maybe, why he did what
he did."

Bart lowered his eyes. He had no answer to that.

"No, you won't be killed. But that's all I can guarantee. My personal
feelings have nothing to do with it. You'll have to go to Council Planet
with us, and you'll have to be psych-checked there. That is Lhari
law--and by treaty with your Federation, it is human law, too. If you
know anything dangerous to us, we have a legal right to eliminate those
memories before you can be released."

Meta smiled at him, encouragingly, but Bart shivered. That was almost
worse than the thought of death.

And the fear grew more oppressive as the ship forged onward toward the
home world of the Lhari. And it did not lessen when, after they touched
down, he was taken from the ship under guard.

He had only a glimpse, through dark glasses, of the terrible brilliance
of the Lhari sun dazzling on crystal towers, before he was hustled into
a closed surface car. It whisked him away to a building he did not see
from the outside; he was taken up by private elevator to a suite of
ro