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By Root 195 0

Master gave his most charming smile. 'The company down here is so boring,' he said, 'and at least we understand each other. Now you read the map while I hold the gun on you so that you don't desert me in this gloomy place.' He gave the map to the Doctor; it showed the many corridors, rooms and galleries in the underground city. Over the square indicating one room a big X had been drawn. 'There's where we're making for,' said the Master. 'I don't think it should be too difficult for a fellow of your intelligence to lead us there.'

With the Master's gun pressed lightly in his back, the Doctor had no option but to try to steer their way through the maze of corridors. Very soon the Doctor recognised the corridors as those where he and Jo had been taken when they met the Guardian. On turning a final corner they could see at the dead-end of a corridor the huge double-doors and two Primitives standing guard.

'Is that it?' asked the Master.

'Yes,' said the Doctor, 'and it's guarded.'

The Master stroked his beard, thinking. 'This raises an interesting problem. If I raise my gun to shoot first one guard and then the other, then the gun cannot be pointing at you.'

'True,' said the Doctor.

'And you,' said the Master, 'could knock it out of my hand.'

'I would try to do it without hurting you,' said the Doctor.

'Nonetheless,' said the Master, 'using your Venusian karate you would soon render me unconscious, and then try to take me prisoner. Of course, I could let you run away at this point, and that would leave me free to deal with those two guards.'

'To murder them, you mean,' said the Doctor.

'What are the lives of two savages,' said the Master, 'compared with the value of bringing peace and order to the whole galaxy? Still, you always were sentimental, Doctor.' He paused to give the problem more consideration. 'I'm afraid there's only one practical solution. Regrettably I must shoot you first, then very quickly pick off the two guards before they have time to move.'

'Or,' said the Doctor, 'we might simply ask the two guards to go away.'

'How? They don't seem to understand anything we say,

'By telepathy,' said the Doctor. 'I'm sure that's how they cornmunicate, and how the priests give them their orders. May I ask them to go away on your behalf?'

'Is this some trick?' The Master held the gun menacingly close to the Doctor's head.

'In a sense, but not one aimed against you. Certainly among humans,' said the Doctor, 'telepathy takes place when two people's minds give off alpha waves at a cyclic rate between 9 and 11 per second. If I can find the cyclic rate of these Primitives, I can order them to leave that door unguarded.'

This appealed to the Master's intellect. 'All right,' he said, 'have a go. Let's see what you can do.'

The Doctor stared down the long corridor where the Primitives guarded the huge doors. He knew it was no use putting his command into words in his mind, for the Primitives might not understand. Instead he forced into his imagination a picture of the two guards laying down their spears and walking away from the big doors. He repeated this picture over and over again in his mind as he struggled to control his own brain to transmit only alpha thought-waves at the correct rate per second. To blot out from his mind that the guards were still standing by the door, he closed his eyes, then again repeated the mental picture.

'One of them moved!' whispered the Master. 'You're getting through.'

The Doctor tried again, this time at a much higher rate per second. The Master jogged his arm and he opened his eyes. 'Look,' said the Master excitedly. 'They're going!'

The two Primitives had put down their spears, and now they were slowly walking down the corridor towards where the Doctor and the Master were hiding. The Doctor and the Master pressed themselves back into an alcove, and the two Primitives slowly walked by them like sleep-walkers. When they had gone well out of sight the Master tugged at the Doctor's sleeve. 'Come on, you go first.'

The huge doors were not locked and were quite easy to open. The Doctor