he'd be able to prove that he, Yorkan Varr, was innocent of the crime of which he had been accused. And, possibly, he would be able to prove that the others of the Group were innocent, too.

Skardoth's plan was quite evident. Earth was a Class Q-1 civilization; it bordered on being admitted to the Federation. But Skardoth had been on Earth for five hundred years; the short-lived Earthmen had no idea that their destinies had been controlled by a being whose life span was nearly ten times as long as theirs.

Yorkan Varr—he tried to think of himself as John Stern now—was, like all citizens of the Federation, extremely long-lived. He would easily live to be a thousand—perhaps more. But the Exiles had, in the last few centuries, taken advantage of the Earthmen—a fact which had not been communicated to the Council of Judges. The Council evidently thought that the Earth was still in the lower classes of civilization; they didn't realize that Earthmen had already built interplanetary spaceships and might yet build interstellar vehicles.

Stern felt he could trust the girl, Elizabeth. She seemed to be aware that something was wrong, but she didn't quite seem to know what.

One night, Skardoth assigned both of them to go out to Long Island to take a look at the Nuclear Power Plant there. He wanted data on the new nucleolectric energies that had been developed.

Elizabeth was supposedly a nuclear scientist assigned to the Long Island plant; for twelve years she had built up her identity there.

But, as they approached the installation, she slowed the car and parked it alongside the road.

"What's the idea, Liz?" he asked.

"There's something troubling you Johnny. What is it?"

He looked at her bleakly. "You really want to know?"

She nodded and started to say something, but before she could answer, he said: "Okay; I'll tell you. We—you and I, and all the others of the Group—are being led by the nose. Skardoth is using us for his own purposes."

Rapidly, he explained what he knew about the leader of the group. When he had finished, he held his breath. If the girl didn't believe him—

Elizabeth nodded slowly. "I know," she said softly. "I've known for a long time. So have most of the others. We knew he was controlling us." Then 

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