e poisoning the circumambient air, while Crane sat, quiet
and self-possessed as always, waiting for the nimble brain of his friend
to find a way over, around, or through the obstacle confronting them.

"Got it, Mart!" Seaton yelled, darting to the board and setting up one
integral after another. "If they did leave the planet in a ship, we'll
be able to watch them go--and we'll see what they did, anyway, no matter
what it was!"

"How? They've been gone almost a month already," protested Crane.

"We know within half an hour the exact time of their departure. We'll
simply go out the distance light has traveled since that time, gather in
the rays given off, amplify them a few billion times, and take a look at
whatever went on."

"But we have no idea of what region of the planet to study, or whether
it was night or day at the point of departure when they left."

"We'll get the council room, and trace events from there. Day or night
makes no difference--we'll have to use infra-red anyway, because of the
fog, and that's almost as good at night as in the daytime. There is no
such thing as absolute darkness upon any planet, anyway, and we've got
power enough to make anything visible that happened there, night or day.
Mart, I've got power enough here to see and to photograph the actual
construction of the pyramids of Egypt in that same way--and they were
built thousands of years ago!"

"Heavens, what astounding possibilities!" breathed Crane. "Why, you
could...."

"Yeah, I could do a lot of things," Seaton interrupted him rudely, "but
right now we've got other fish to fry. I've just got the city we
visited, at about the time we were there. General Fenimol, who
disappeared, must be in the council room down here right now. I'll
retard our projection, so that time will apparently pass more quickly,
and we'll duck down there and see what actually did happen. I can
heterodyne, combine, and recombine just as though we were watching the
actual scene--it's more complicated, of course, since I have to follow
it and amplify it too, but it works out all right."

"This is unbelievable, Dick. Think of actually seeing something that
really happened in the past!"

"Yeah, it's kinda strong, all right. As Dot would say, it's just too
perfectly darn outrageous. But we're doing it, ain't we? I know just
how, and why. When we get some time I'll shoot the method into your
brain. Well, here we are!"

* * * *