"They are represented by simulacra in Outside. You must identify these simulacra and touch each one; this done, they will exchange again, and you will be rotated Inside. Have you seen any here?"
A light burst in Hugh's brain. "I saw a man from my own age who looked like a bona-fide night-prowler, all right."
"You see?" The magician spread his hands expressively. "Half the work is over. Simply search for another night-prowler whose costume is two hundred years older—or, of course, younger—than the first. It's very simple. Now, young sir—" The hands began to wash each other suggestively.
Hugh produced a handful of coins. "That's no good," said the little man with a sniff. "I can make that myself. It's the city's principle industry. I don't suppose you have any sugar on you? Or rubber bands? No? Hmm. How about that?"
He prodded Hugh's vest. "That" was Hugh's Sigma Chi key, dangling from his watch chain. He had been elected to the honorary society by virtue of a closely reasoned paper on the deficiencies of current stellar evolution hypotheses. With a grin he passed it across the counter. "Thanks," the thaumaturgist said, "I collect fetishes. Totem fixation, I guess."
Feeling rather humble, Hugh left the shop and started back toward Bell's house by the most direct route his memory could provide. Now that he had begun to get his bearings, his stomach was reminding him that he had gone the whole day without food. On the way he saw the known Atavar half-way down a dark alley, contemplating a low doorway sorrowfully; but when he arrived, the top-hatted figure was gone. By the time he entered the house where he had his first glimpse of Outside, he was decidedly discouraged, but the pleasant smell of food revived him somewhat.
"Good evening," Bell greeted him, though the ambiguous daylight was as unvaryingly bright as ever. "Find your astrologer?"
"Yes. Now I have to find a night-prowler. You wouldn't be one, by any chance?"
The man laughed softly. "In a sense, yes, but I'm too old to be the one you want. You're Atavar-hunting, I take it?"