t
the window, frowning.

"The train seems to have stopped," said the banker.

Bezdek turned to the window. It was true. The night was clouded and
dark but he could make out a single tree in faint silhouette and it was
not moving. The knock on the stateroom door came again.

"I'd better see who it is," said Bezdek, rising. "Maybe something is
wrong."

He opened the door quickly--all but fell back into his seat. The tall
young man with the too-perfect features--the man who had tried in vain
to speak to him at the Kansas City airport, who had been forcibly
evicted earlier from the car--stood there!

The young man smiled and it was much too cold to be ingratiating if that
was its intent. He said, looking down on both men, "I think you will
wish to talk to me now."

The sheer effrontery of it rendered Cyril Bezdek speechless for the
first time in years. Looking past the intruder through the angle of the
open door he could see Ty Falter sitting on the corridor floor, leaning
against the wall. His eyes were closed, his head canted at an odd angle.

It was Dorwin who first found words. "Who are you?" he inquired. "What
do you want?"

"I am from Mars," said the stranger. "I have come here to enter a
protest against the manner in which Mr. Bezdek's motion pictures are
portraying my people."

The movie-maker's mouth dropped open. He closed it quickly, glanced
across at the banker, saw equal bewilderment on that usually poker-face.
On impulse, Bezdek reached for the buzzer that would summon aid and
pressed it firmly several times.

"No one will answer," said the intruder in a voice remarkable not for
its accent but for its lack of any. "We have been forced to--to
immobilize this train in order to see you. It has been very difficult to
reach you, Mr. Bezdek, I am sure through no fault of your own. But the
people of my planet feel very strongly about this matter and I must get
some satisfaction for them."

"So help me," said the mogul, his thin face purple with anger, "if this
is a gag I'll see you jailed for it! And before you're jailed you're
going to have a very unpleas--"

"No, Mr. Bezdek--Mr. Dorwin--this is not a joke. We of Mars are proud of
our culture, our civilization. We do not like being portrayed as evil
and ridiculous creatures. We're not like those filthy Venerians. We
Martians have a great self-respect."

"_Ostrich feathers!_" Bezdek roared at the dead-panned intruder. "You
may not be aware of it but