THIS TIME FENTON KNEW WHAT TO EXPECT; and, knowing, he managed to complete five perfect runs of the cards before it became too difficult to control his voice.  But when Garnock asked him to attempt control of the pK dice machine, he refused.

"You think it's ESP," he managed to say, "but it isn't.  It's bilocation."

"Would you like to explain that?" Garnock asked, in the carefully neutral tones that annoyed Fenton so much in this state of consciousness.

Fenton said churlishly, "No.  I wouldn't like to at all.  Too hard to talk now..."  And he walked out through the wall again.

He was beginning to feel nervous, conscious that it wasn't really fair to blame Garnock for his irritability.  The fact was, he was beginning to feel the world fade around him, to be aware that if he stayed there much longer he would go right through the floor.

Outside, the campus was already so dim that it was difficult to find landmarks.  He turned north again, hurrying toward the eucalyptus grove which had been there in both worlds, looking for the characteristic arrangement of the trees.  The trees were there, as they had been; but already they were no longer eucalyptus.  They rose upward, with narrow silvery stems and some kind of feathery white flowers; and there was no sign of the mountain pass where he had first seen the Alfar attacked by the ironfolk.

This stopped him short.  Somehow he had never doubted that he would be able to return to exactly the same place he had left this world last time.