gradually. They took to the woods. There they found places to liveâburrows, caves, hollow trees.â
He shook his head in some perplexity.
âA strange people. They rejected most of the material advantages that we offered them. Wanted nothing to do with our civilization, were unimpressed with our culture, but they liked the planet. Liked it as a place to live, but in their own way, of course. We donât know too much about them. Highly civilized, it would appear, but in a different way than we. Intelligent, but with different values from the ones we hold. Some of them, I understand, have attached themselves to certain families or individuals who set out food for them, or supply them cloth for clothing, or other needs they may have from time to time. It is a curious relationship. The Brownies arenât pets of these people. Maybe you could call them good luck talismen. Much the relationship that the literary Brownies were assigned.â
âWell, Iâll be damned,â said Blake.
âYou thought your Brownie was another hallucination?â
âYes, I did. I expected him to go away all the time, to simply vanish from my sight. But he didnât. He sat there eating and wiping the crumbs off his whiskers and telling me where to place the flies. Over there, heâd say, thereâs a big one over there just between that swirl of water and the bank. And there would be. He seemed to know where the fish were.â
âHe was paying you back for the lunch. He was giving you good luck.â
âYou think he actually did know where the fish were? I know, it seemed to me he did, but â¦â
âI wouldnât be surprised,â said Daniels. âAs I told you, we donât know too much about the Brownies. They probably have abilities we lack. Knowing where to find the fish might be one of them.â He glanced sharply at Blake. âYouâd never heard about the Brownies? The real ones, I mean.â
âNo, I never had.â
âI think that gives us a good time peg,â said Daniels. âIf you had been here, on Earth, at that time, you would have heard about it.â
âMaybe I did, but donât remember.â
âI donât think so. The incident, to judge from the writings at the time, made a great public impression. Itâs something that you would have recalled if youâd ever heard of it. It would have made a deep impression on your mind.â
âWe have other time pegs,â said Blake. âThis get-up that we wear is new to me. Robes and shorts and sandals. I can recall that I wore some sort of trousers and a jerkin. And the ships. The gravity grids are new to me. I can remember that we used nuclear power.â¦â
âWe still do.â
âNuclear power alone in my day. Now it is an auxiliary force to build up greater velocity, but the real power comes from the control and manipulation of gravitational forces.â
âThere are a number of other things that are new to you, too,â said Daniels. âThe houses â¦â
âThey almost drove me crazy to start with,â Blake said. âBut Iâm relieved about that Brownie. It substracts one potential incident from my situation.â
âThese hallucinations. You donât think they are, of course. You told me yesterday.â
âI canât see how they can be,â said Blake. âI remember everything that happens up to a certain point, then there is a blank and finally Iâm myself again. I canât remember a thing that happened during that blank period, although there is abundant evidence that something did transpire. And there is a definite period of time to account for it.â
âThe second one,â said Daniels, âhappened while you slept.â
âTrue. But the Room observed a certain phenomena, which transpired over a definite period of time.â
âWhat kind of house do you have?â
âA
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