A gray mist swallowed the downhill path less than a hundred yards ahead. The big man still came down the path at a steady lope. His eyes were fixed on the mist ahead, but his long legs never broke their rhythm and his feet in their scarred hiking boots always struck firm ground. He carried a heavy pack on his back and a long staff in one hand, while ragged hair and beard suggested that he'd been on the move for days if not weeks.

Richard Blade had indeed been moving across the Highlands of Scotland for fourteen days, living rough, traveling far, sleeping little and eating less, getting steadily more tired but also steadily happier. Now he was covering the last few miles as fast as his legs would carry him. Physically he was weary, but within he felt stronger and readier to face this world or any other world than he'd felt for months.

Richard Blade was a man who had to face many worlds. He was the only man on earth who could travel into other Dimensions and remain alive and sane. Even for him it wasn't easy. If Blade hadn't been a nearly perfect combination of mental and physical qualities, he would have long since lain in a grave in some other Dimension far away across infinity.

In fact, if Blade hadn't been that nearly perfect combination, no one would ever have known of those distant Dimensions. Lord Leighton, Britain's most original and creative scientific mind, conceived the experiment of linking a computer and a human brain, to form an instant genius. The human brain he chose was Richard Blade's.

Then came the accident. Instead of becoming the intended superbrain, Richard Blade vanished entirely from Britain. He appeared in a strange, violent, and primitive land where he had to use all his strength and wits to survive. Somehow he succeeded, and in time Lord Leighton managed to reverse the workings of the computer and bring him back to Britain.