et, either--but he'd come
close. Tom had seen the inside of a jail or two a lot more recently than
he'd seen the inside of a classroom.

Tom was easily led.

Sure.

Well, Gloria thought, the problem was to lead him into something more
productive and satisfying than the gangs of New York. And that didn't
seem to be too hard.

Of course, she had very little practice as yet. The theoretical
knowledge she'd been able to dig up in college was mostly on the magic
and superstition shelves of the library--and, while she got full credit
in her minor, Anthropology, for the research she'd done, a great deal of
it just wasn't any practical help.

Not if you _were_ a witch--or what passed for one.

"You see what I mean, don't you?" Mrs. Francis said.

"Of course I do," Gloria said, and gave the woman her most reassuring
smile. "I'm sure something can be done. Do you know where your boy is
now?"

Mrs. Francis nodded, birdlike. "He's home now. I think he's sleeping. He
usually doesn't wake up until after noon."

"I see." Gloria hesitated a moment. "Can you describe him for me?"

"Describe him?"

"That's right," Gloria said. "You see, the somatotypes have, we've
discovered, a great influence on mental and emotional makeup."

She didn't feel right, lying to the woman--but chances were that what
she'd said didn't make any sense to Mrs. Francis and, in any case,
Gloria could hardly tell her the real reason she wanted a description.

It would aid in making the doll she needed.

"He's about six feet tall," Mrs. Francis said, "but he's very thin, and
sometimes I worry about that. I try to give him the best nourishment I
know how, but he--"

"What color is his hair?" Gloria interrupted.

"Oh," Mrs. Francis said. "Brown. And brown eyes. Really nice eyes;
they're his best feature; everybody says so."

"Any distinguishing marks, or anything unusual about him?"

"He has a scar now, on his left arm just below the elbow, but he got
that in a fight with these boys--"

"All right," Gloria said. "Thank you very much."

"What are you going to do?" Mrs. Francis said. "You're not going to have
him arrested or anything, are you? Because he's not a bad boy, you know
that. He's only--"

"Easily led," Gloria finished. "Of course. There won't be any need for
arrest, or for anything as drastic as that. You just go home now, and
don't worry. I'm sure everything's going to be all right."

"I only want to help my boy," Mrs. Francis sa