he'd have to make certain. He'd have to look at a foam-suitedcreature. He could have examined Helena's eyes, but she was gone now.However, there was an alternative. There was a Dillon in Salonika, asthere was a Helena. If the Dillon in Salonika was the real Dillon--ifthere were a real Dillon--he could look at his eyes. He could tell if hewere the false Dillon or the real one.
* * * * *
At this hour of the afternoon a Britisher would consider tea anecessity. There was only one place in Salonika where they served teathat an Englishman would consider drinkable. Coburn got into a cab andgave the driver the address, and made sure of the revolver in hispocket. He was frightened. He was either going to meet with a monsterfrom outer space, or be on the way to making so colossal a fool ofhimself that a mental asylum would yawn for him.
He went into the one coffee-shop in Salonika which served drinkable tea.It was dark and dingy inside, though the tablecloths were spotless. Hewent in, and there was Dillon.
Coburn's flesh crawled. If the figure sitting there with the _LondonTimes_ and a cup of tea before him were actually a monster from anotherplanet ...
But Dillon read comfortably, and sipped his tea. Coburn approached, andthe Englishman looked up inquiringly.
"I was ... up in the mountains," said Coburn feverishly, "when thoseBulgarians came over. I can give you the story."
Dillon said frostily: "I'm not interested. The government's officiallydenied that any such incident took place. It's merely a silly rumor."
It was reasonable that it should be denied. But it had happened,nonetheless. Coburn stared, despite a consciousness that he was notconspicuously rational in the way his eyes searched Dillon's facehungrily. The eyes _were_ different! The eyes of the Dillon up in themountains had been larger, and the brown part--But he had to be sure.
Suddenly, Coburn found himself grinning. There was a simple, a perfect,an absolute test for humanity!
Dillon said suspiciously: "What the devil are you staring at me for?"
Coburn continued to grin uncontrollably, even as he said in a tone ofapology: "I hate to do this, but I have to be sure...."
He swung. He connected with Dillon's nose. Blood started.
Coburn zestfully let himself be thrown out, while Dillon roared andtried to get at him through the flying wedge of waiters. He felt anenormous relaxation on the way back to his office in another cab. He wasa trifle battered, but it was worth it.
* * * * *
Back in the office he called Hallen again. And again Hallen answered. Hesounded guilty and worried.
"I don't know whether I'm crazy or not," he said bitterly. "But I was inyour office. I saw your secretary there--and she didn't feel pins stuckin her. And something did happen to those Bulgarians that the Greeksdon't know anything about, or the Americans either. So you're to tellyour story to the high brass down in Athens. I think you'll be locked upafterward as a lunatic--and me with you for believing my own eyes. But aplane's being readied."
"Where do I meet you?" asked Coburn.
Hallen told him. A certain room out at the airport. Coburn hung up. Thetelephone rang instantly. He was on the way out, but he turned back andanswered it. Janice's voice--amazingly convincing--came from theinstrument. And at the first words his throat went dry. Because itcouldn't be Janice.
"I've been trying to get you. Have you tried to reach me?"
"Why, no. Why?"
Janice's voice said: "I've something interesting to tell you. I left theoffice an hour ago. I'm at the place where I live when I'm in Salonika.Write down the address. Can you come here? I've found out somethingastonishing!"
He wrote down the address. He had a feeling of nightmarishness. This wasnot Janice--
"I'm clearing up some matters you'll guess at," he said grimly, "so Imay be a little while getting there. You'll wait?"
He hung up. And then with a rather ghastly humor he took some pins froma box on the desk and worked absorbedly at bending one around the insideof the band of the seal ring he wore on his right hand.
* * * * *
But he didn't go to the telephoned address. He went to the BreenFoundation. And Janice was there. She was the real Janice. He knew itinstantly he saw her. She was panic-stricken when he told her of his owntelephone experience. Her teeth chattered. But she knew--instinctively,she said--that he was himself. She got into the cab with him.
They reached the airport and found the office Hallen had named. Thelettering on it, in Greek and French, said that it was a reception roomfor official visitors only.
"Our status is uncertain," said Coburn drily. "We may be officialguests, or we may be crazy. It's a toss-up which status sticks."
He opened the door and looked carefully inside before he entered. Hallenwas there. There was a lean, hard-bitten colonel of the American liaisonforce in Greece. There was a Greek general, pudgy and genial, standingwith his back to a window and his hands clasped behind him. There weretwo Greek colonels and a major. They regarded him soberly.
"Howdo, Coburn," said Hallen painfully. "You're heading for Athens, youknow. This is Miss Ames? But these gentlemen have ... ah ... a specialconcern with that business up-country. They'd like to hear your storybefore you leave."
"I suppose," said Coburn curtly, "it's a sort of preliminary commissionin lunacy."
But he shook hands all around. He kept his left hand in his coat pocketas he shook hands with his right. His revolver was in his left-handpocket now too. The Greek general beamed at him. The American colonel'seyes were hard and suspicious. One of the two Greek colonels was veryslightly cross-eyed. The Greek major shook hands solemnly.
Coburn took a deep breath. "I know my tale sounds crazy," he said, "but... I had a telephone call just now. Hallen will bear me out that mysecretary was impersonated by somebody else this afternoon."
"I've told them that," said Hallen unhappily.
"And something was impersonating Dillon up in the hills," finishedCoburn. "I've reason to believe that at this address"--and he handed theaddress he'd written down to Hallen--"a ... creature will be found whowill look most convincingly like Miss Ames, here. You might send andsee."
The American colonel snorted: "This whole tale's preposterous! It's anattempt to cash in on the actual mystery of what happened up-country."
The Greek general protested gently. His English was so heavily accentedas to be hard to understand, but he pointed out that Coburn knew detailsof the event in Naousa that only someone who had been there could know.
"True enough," said the American officer darkly, "but he can tell thetruth now, before we make fools of ourselves sending him to Athens to beunmasked. Suppose," he said unpleasantly, "you give us the actualfacts!"
Coburn nodded. "The idea you find you can't take is that creatures thataren't human can be on Earth and pass for human beings. There's someevidence on that right here." He nodded to the Greek major who was thejunior officer in the room. "Major, will you show these other gentlementhe palm of your hand?"
The Greek major frowned perplexedly. He lifted his hand and looked atit. Then his face went absolutely impassive.
"I'm ready to shoot!" snapped Coburn. "Show them your hand. I can tellnow."
He felt the tensing of the others in the room, not toward the major buttoward him. They were preparing to jump him, thinking him mad.
But the major grinned ruefully: "Clever, Mr. Coburn! But how did youpick me out?"
Then there was a sensation of intolerable brightness all around. But itwas not actual light. It was a sensation inside one's brain.
Coburn felt himself falling. He knew, somehow, that the others werefalling too. He saw everyone in the room in the act of slumping limplyto the floor--all but the Greek major. And Coburn felt a bitter,despairing fury as consciousness left him.
IV
He came to in a hospital room, with a nurse and two doctors and anelaborate oxygen-administering apparatus. The apparatus was wheeled out
.The nurse followed. The two doctors hurried after her. The Americancolonel of the airport was standing by the bed on which Coburn lay,fully dressed.
Coburn felt perfectly all right. He stirred. The American colonel saidsourly: "You're not harmed. Nobody was. But Major Pangalos got away."
Coburn sat up. There was a moment's bare trace of dizziness, and thatwas gone too. Coburn said: "Where's Miss Ames? What happened to her?"
"She's getting oxygen," said the colonel. "We were rushed here from theairport, sleeping soundly just like those Bulgarians. Major Pangalosordered it before he disappeared. Helicopters brought some