e isn't entirely deserted,
after all."

"What do you mean?" asked Spalding.

"Couple of squirrels sitting in the window," Simms explained.

"In the window? Inside the cabin?"

"Yes," said Fredericks. "Either they strayed in while he was gone, or
he's keeping them as pets. Now, should we start looking around outside
for Chard?"

"No," Spalding decided. "The Base is too big to attempt to cover at
pin-point focus. If he's living in the cabin and has simply gone out,
he'll return within a few hours at the most. We'll wait and see what
we can deduce from the way he behaves when he shows up." He turned to
McAllen. "Ollie," he said, "I think you might allow yourself to relax
just a little. This doesn't seem at all bad!"

McAllen grunted. "I don't know," he said. "You're overlooking one
thing."

"What's that?"

"I told Chard when to expect us. Unless he's smashed the clock, he
knows we're due today. If nothing's wrong--wouldn't he be waiting in
the cabin for us?"

Spalding hesitated. "That is a point. He seems to be hiding out. May
have prepared an ambush, for that matter. John--"

"Yes?" Fredericks said.

"Step the tubescope down as fine as it will go, and scan that cabin as
if you were vacuuming it. There may be some indication--"

"He's already doing that," Simms interrupted.

There was silence again for almost two minutes. Forefinger and thumb
of Fredericks' right hand moved with infinite care on a set of dials
on the side of the scanner; otherwise neither he nor Simms stirred.

"Oh-hoo-hoo-HAW!" Dr. John Fredericks cried suddenly. "Oh-hoo-hoo-HAW!
A message, Ollie! Your Mr. Chard has left you a ... hoo-hoo ...
message."

For a moment McAllen couldn't see clearly through the scanner.
Fredericks was still laughing; Simms was saying in a rapid voice,
"It's quite all right, doctor! Quite all right. Your man's sane, quite
sane. In fact you've made, one might guess, a one hundred per cent
convert to the McAllen approach to life. Can't you _see_ it?"

"No," gasped McAllen. He had a vague impression of the top of the desk
in the main room of the cabin, of something white--a white card--taped
to it, of blurred printing on the card. "Nothing's getting _that_ boy
unduly excited any more," Simms' voice went on beside him. "Not even
the prospect of seeing visitors from Earth for the first time in five
years. But he's letting you know it's perfectly all right to make
yourself at home in his cabin until he gets back