d did he become in his newly discovered, if second-hand, freedom.

"What's happened to you anyway?" demanded his erstwhile partner one day
after he had had to repeat a question. "Half of the time lately you're
lost in a world of your own. What're you up to anyway?"

"Nothing," replied Mel, suddenly alert to any new danger, although
confident he could take care of himself now. "I was just going over some
new equations I've been formulating as a hobby. Now that you've taken
away my cart, there isn't much to keep me occupied you know. You don't
begin to bring enough problems. What's wrong?"

Mel wished that he could read the other's mind since Neil began to act
evasive. He laughed with a false heartiness. "Wrong? Why I've--we've--"
he corrected, "--already made a fortune on a couple of our own patents
as well as commissions from project solutions. Someone might get
suspicious if we did too well or too much."

This made sense but Mel couldn't resist digging. "You mean that your
past record of success as measured against your supposed one now might
make the police ask questions?" he asked. The other remained silent so
he pressed the attack. "Or are they already wondering why I haven't been
seen for so long?"

"There were a few questions at first," admitted the other, "but I think
I've satisfied them all. However, I've been thinking that it might be a
good idea to move you somewhere else."

"But hardly anyone knows the lab exists," protested Mel.

"The power company does, even if the meters are way down the road. We
should've planned on our own generators from the first. Then there's the
deed recorder. This land is in both of our names you know."

"It'd still be a tremendous project," pointed out Mel. "You couldn't
begin to keep the new location secret because you'd need help in moving
me. One little slip and it'd be all over."

There was an upward curl to the other's lips that Mel didn't like. "Oh,
we'd have to be careful," he admitted. "Luckily the time delay wouldn't
hurt any, there's so much money rolling in." He hesitated for a moment,
as if in thought, then concluded, "In fact, there's no project on now
unless you have a private one of your own. It might be a good idea to
plan on the move right away."

"I still don't like the idea," stated Mel flatly. "I'd like to think it
over for a couple of days."

"Think it over all you want," said Neil with a grin. He walked to the
calculator and patted it near the jolt