"Nothing doing,” Mike said. "Fine friend, stealing my girl. Gonna drink it all myself—got lights spinning in my head—colors—"
"I see 'em," Sammy mumbled. "Very pretty."
THE opaqueness was dissolving from the walls of the machine, and the scientists of Quenna stood tensely on all sides. After a time, Pyteles said:
"There is nothing within. It will—" His voice choked off to silence. But the machine became increasingly clear, and among the many forms that began to assume definite shape, two moved! Two forms that moved spasmodically—The machine had brought back life!
All at once the veil seemed to lift, and a thrill swept through the feverish band of white-clad men. Looking into the machine, they could see the two forms clearly now—forms that bore a miraculous resemblance to the bodies and faces of the Quennians themselves. Lito now said:
"It is as Tallu said, from beginning to end." Even he was un-nerved by the fidelity with which the physical makeup of the Quennians duplicated that of the two men in the machine.
Only their dress was different, and that too had been expected. But the two men were lying on their backs, eyes closed, oblivious of where they were or what had happened to them and what had been their room, and one of them mumbled three words haltingly:
"She's my girl."
And now that one of them had spoken, Kora-san took a thin silver band in his trembling hands and encircled his brow with it. He gazed searchingly at the two men within the transparent walls. The band sparkled and lit up his gentle, graven features, and Kora-san nodded.
"It is a strange language," he said.
"One of broken words and clouded inferences, but with sufficient complexity for us to communicate with each other." Quickly, the other four scientists put on their circlets.
The Quennian scientists looked as if they could have cried out in unrepressed joy, but they were quiet. Pyteles said:
"Then they are civilized? We shall have no need to restrain them?"
Lito, the chief, waved him away, a trace of impatience in his gesture.
"The word of Tallu told us they were civilized, after a fashion," he said. "If they were not, our purpose would have no meaning, no chance of success." He touched a lever on the instrument panel himself, and the walls of the machine dropped from sight, exposing the interior of the machine with its occupants.
With quick, decisive steps, Lito walked up the stairs that were carved in the jade on which the machine rested. He entered the area of the interior and stood close to the men. They had scarcely stirred in minutes.
"Welcome to Quenna, travelers from the Third Dimension," said Lito. "Welcome to the world of the Fourth Dimension."
MIKE TRACY half turned and blinked at the tall man who stood before him, clad in a white toga.
"Where the hell did you come from?" Mike said, in perplexity.
"Hell?" Lito's brow furrowed. "This is Quenna. Were you expecting to travel to hell?"
"Maybe him, not me," said Sammy, sitting up. "Hey, whazz the big idea wearing a bedsheet? House on fire or something?" He stared about him dizzily, and it seemed to him that the walls of his room were unaccountably missing. He looked at Mike, who had piled two pillows on his head, and nodded
