"You mean to tell me that I didn't recognize myself?" he demanded.
Again she nodded. "You see, Les, you—and everybody—is used to seeing himself in a mirror. No face or person is symmetrical; that mole on your right cheek is always on your mirror image's left cheek—but it was still on the other Ackerman's right cheek. Also, you expected that if that ship did contain yourself, coming to get you as you so happily told the Ford-Laplane outfit, you expected that you would make some wisecrack about it. Therefore you didn't expect yourself to be coming as you did. Quite simple, I call it."
"Another angle on this mad tangle," said Les. "I'll be glad to get out of it."
"So will I," said Tansie.
"And I'm going to start right now!"
9
Below them lay the depressed green-glaze bowl of atomic horror; above stood the silent laboratory, deserted and awaiting the arrival of the technicians for the next morning's work.
Hazily in sight was the temperon sample, and the radiation counters were clicking off at a fast rate.
"What are you going to do?" asked Tansie, in a voice that was filled with fear.