Grey stared at this personage with curiosity, and with a slight chill. From photographs he knew the form of the natives of the fourth planet of Canopus, and from rumors and bar-room tales he had heard sufficient concerning them to ring a note of alarm in his brain.
Yet, as he sat there for a moment, the alarm died away for although to his untrained eyes the Canopan was practically featureless, there was an aura of pleasantness about it appearing from a source which at that time he was not able to identify.
Into his mind the thought came, "What if they can read my mind, like everybody says? He doesn't look like he would hurt me. But...."
The voice of the examiner cut his thoughts short.
"Here are ten cards lying face down on the table. Tell me what markings are on the front of these cards."
"But how can I tell you if the cards are face down?"
The man smiled. "Just try, anyway."
Grey wanted to snort and laugh in the man's face; but then suddenly he shivered, for actually he knew....
"Why there's a circle, a square, a triangle, another circle...."
Then there was a sealed box in which he identified a cube, a sphere, a cylinder, and a more difficult object which turned out to be a key.