l Helena, that is, would not sit down on
a dusty chair. No woman would. But you did. She is a very truthful girl.
You lied to me. And I just stuck pins in your shoulder and you didn't
notice. They're sticking in your foam suit now. You and the creature
that passed for Dillon up-country are both aliens. Invaders. Do you want
to try to convince me otherwise?"

The girl said evenly: "Mr. Coburn, I do not think you are well--"

Then Coburn said thickly: "I'm crazy enough to put a bullet through you
if your gang of devils has harmed the real Helena. What's happened to
her?"

Hallen moved irresolutely to interfere. But the girl's expression
changed. She smiled. "The real Helena, Mr. Coburn," said an entirely new
voice, "has gone to the suburbs to visit her fiance's family. She is
quite safe."

There was dead silence. The figure--it even moved like Helena--got
composedly to its feet. It got its coat. It put the coat on. Hallen
stared with his mouth open. The pins hadn't convinced him, but the
utterly different voice coming from this girl's mouth had. Yet, waves of
conflicting disbelief and conviction, horror and a racking doubt, chased
themselves over his features.

"She admits she's not Helena!" said Coburn with loathing. "It's not
human! Should I shoot it?"

The girl smiled at him again. Her eyes were very bright. "You will not,
Mr. Coburn. And you will not even try to keep me prisoner to prove your
story. If I screamed that you attack me--" the smile widened--"Helena's
good Greek friends would come to my assistance."

She walked confidently to the door and opened it. Then she said warmly:
"You are very intelligent, Mr. Coburn. We approve of you very much. But
nobody will believe you."

The office door closed.

Coburn turned stiffly to the man he'd called to hear him. "Should I have
shot her, Hallen?"

Hallen sat down as if his knees had given way beneath him. After a long
time he got out a handkerchief and painfully mopped his face. At the
same time he shivered.

"N-no...." Then he swallowed. "My God, Coburn! It's true!"

"Yes," said Coburn bitterly, "or you're as crazy as I am."

Hallen's eyes looked haunted. "I--I ..." He swallowed again. "There's no
question about the Bulgarian business. That did happen! And you were
there. And--there've been other things.... Rumors.... Reports that
nobody believed.... I might be able to get somebody to listen...." He
shivered again. "If it's true, it's the most terrible