"It was just before the time periods separated and the creature that
was approaching Miss Trelawney and myself seemed to drop through the
top of the mesa--I suppose it fell back into the other period. I've
described it. It was like a fifty-foot gray slug moving along on its
tail ... and there were those two rows of something like short arms. It
wasn't at all an attractive creature. I was frightened to death. But
I was holding a gun--the same gun with which I had stopped another of
those things when it chased me during the night. And the trouble was
that this time I wasn't going to shoot."
"You weren't going to shoot?" Camhorn repeated.
"No, sir. I had every reason to try to blow it to pieces as soon as I
saw it. The other one didn't follow up its attack on me, so it probably
was pretty badly injured. But while I knew that, I was also simply
convinced that it would be useless to pull the trigger. That's as well
as I can explain what happened....
"I think these aliens can control the minds of other beings, but can't
control them through the interference set up by something like our
AR fields. Paul Trelawney appeared in the other time period almost
in their laps. He had a rifle strapped over his back, but presumably
they caught him before he had a chance to use it. They would have
examined him and the equipment he was carrying, and when they took off
his radiation suit, they would have discovered he belonged to a race
which they could control mentally. After that, there would have been no
reason for them to guard him too closely. He was helpless.
* * * * *
"I think Trelawney realized this, and used a moment when his actions
were not being controlled to slip back into the suit. Then he was free
to act again. When they discovered he had escaped, some of them were
detailed to search for him, and two of those pursuers came out here in
our time on the mesa.
"As for Miss Trelawney--well, obviously she wasn't trying to get away
from me. Apparently, she wasn't even aware of what she was doing. She
was simply obeying physically the orders her mind began to receive as
soon as she stepped out of the radiation suit. They would have been
to come to the thing, wherever it was at the moment--somewhere up to
the north of the ranch area, judging from the direction in which she
headed."
There was silence for some seconds. Then Camhorn's companion observed,
"There's one thing that doesn't quite fit in with your theory,
lieutenant."
"What's that, sir?"
"Your report states that you switched off your AR field at the same
time you advised Miss Trelawney to get out of her suit. You should have
been equally subject to the alien's mental instructions."
"Well," Dowland said, "I can attempt to explain that, sir, though again
there is no way to prove what I think. But it might be that these
creatures can control, only one mind at a time. The alien may not have
realized that I had ... well ... knocked Miss Trelawney unconscious
and that she was unable to obey its orders, until it came to the spot
and saw us. My assumption is that it wasn't till that moment that it
switched its mental attack to me."
* * * * *
The stout man--his name was Laillard White, and he was one of
Research's ace trouble-shooters in areas more or less loosely related
to psychology--appeared morosely reflective as he and Camhorn left
Solar Police Authority Headquarters, and turned toward the adjoining
Overgovernment Bureau.
"I gather from your expression," Camhorn remarked, "that our lieutenant
was telling the truth."