_ nerves had been half
ruined in the process would seem a matter of no consequence to this
rugged crew....

She realized next that someone here was addressing her personally.

It took a few moments to steady her jittering thoughts enough to gain
a more definite impression than that. This speaker, she discovered
then, was a member of the circle of whom she hadn't been aware before.
The thought-impressions came hard and cold as iron--a personage who
was very evidently in the habit of making major decisions and seeing
them carried out. The circle, its moment of sport over, was listening
with more than a suggestion of deference. Tick-Tock, far from
conciliated, green eyes still blazing, nevertheless was settling down
to listen, too.

Telzey began to understand.

Her suggestions, Iron Thoughts informed her, might appear without
value to a number of foolish minds here, but _he_ intended to see they
were given a fair trial. Did he perhaps hear, he inquired next of the
circle, throwing in a casual but horridly vivid impression of snapping
spines and slashed shaggy throats spouting blood, any objection to
that?

Dead stillness all around. There was, definitely, no objection.
Tick-Tock began to grin like a pleased kitten.

That point having been settled in an orderly manner now, Iron Thoughts
went on coldly to Telzey, what specifically did she propose they
should do?

* * * * *

Halet's long, pearl-gray sportscar showed up above the park trees
twenty minutes later. Telzey, face turned down towards the open law
library in her lap, watched the car from the corner of her eyes. She
was in plain view, sitting beside the lake, apparently absorbed in
legal research. Tick-Tock, camouflaged among the bushes thirty feet
higher up the bank, had spotted the car an instant before she did and
announced the fact with a three-second break in her purring. Neither
of them made any other move.

The car was approaching the lake but still a good distance off. Its
canopy was down, and Telzey could just make out the heads of three
people inside. Delquos, Halet's chauffeur, would be flying the
vehicle, while Halet and Dr. Droon looked around for her from the
sides. Three hundred yards away, the aircar began a turn to the right.
Delquos didn't like his employer much; at a guess, he had just spotted
Telzey and was trying to warn her off.

Telzey closed the library and put it down, picked up a handful of
pebble