Reaching the doorway he says: "Oh it's you, Lizzie. You'll have to help me out of this. I'm stuck."
M'Clare.
The outside of the suit is still freezing cold; maybe this is what has jammed the fastening. After a few minutes tugging it suddenly gives away. M'Clare climbs out of the suit, leaving it standing, and says, "Help me count these, will you?"
These are a series of transparent containers from a pouch slung at one side of the suit. I recognize them as the envelopes in which we put what are referred to as Personal Background Sets.
I say, "There ought to be twenty-three."
"No," says M'Clare dreamily, "twenty-two, we're saving one of them."
"What on earth is the use of an extra set of faked documents and oddments—"
He seems to wake up suddenly and says: "What are you doing here, Lizzie?"
I explain and he wanders over to the hopper and starts to explain the controls.
There is something odd about all this. M'Clare is obviously dead tired, but kind of relaxed; seeing that the hour of Danger is only thirty-six hours off I don't understand it. Probably several of his students are going to have to risk their lives—