“But, master,” the young Terran sounded puzzled, “the door—you haven’t opened the door.”
“Eh? What’s that? Wait there, and I’ll—” the adept’s voice faded out. A brief pause—not more than ten seconds—and Duke Harald heard the sound of an opening door. He tensed; poised himself lightly on the balls of his feet.
Master Elwyn’s voice came again, clearer, louder, and without the faint but unmistakable distortion of a caller-circuit. The jugglery with the door had worked; had decoyed the adept from his inner sanctum.
“Come in,” said Master Elwyn, “at last. I can’t imagine what has happened to this door. But we mustn’t delay your initiation to—” And the click of a closing door cut off the sentence.
Now! Duke Harald plunged around the corner and came to a skidding halt-before the entrance to the inner office.
Over the paint-marked spot on the wall he pressed one of his instruments. It droned faintly, and the door began to slide ajar. And as it opened, Duke Harald’s other hand went reaching in, found the finger slot—and pressed into its shadowed depth a sticky-backed and tiny Sonotec. Then he removed his “opener” from the wall and let the door slide home. All this in the few brief seconds while the Terrans crossed from anteroom to inner office.
Duke Harald sighed gustily and wiped perspiration from his forehead. Then, unreeling a thin, almost invisible thin cable, he resumed his station at the stairhead. This time he Was using a wired job; after his last experience he dared not risk even the tightest of microbeams. And now, he was ready to learn what really went 011 at the initiation of an adept!
“Now, Melton,” Master Elwyn’s voice came clearly along the wire, “sit down, my friend. For two years you have persevered at what must have seemed a slow and thankless task. You have been forced to know yourself, to sound the earliest depths of memory, to lay bare the tangled roots of your most fleeting wish—and all for no more clearly stated reason than that your masters deemed it necessary.”
“Why,” said Melton slowly, “I formed my own opinion about that. Perhaps I should not have kept at it, otherwise.”
“Quite,” said the old adept, approvingly.