iercely intent upon the use of it to recover
another such device that had been looted in the broadcast studio during
the most disastrous of all public-relations enterprises. He'd had no
time for experiment; no time to accustom himself to the singular feeling
of seeming to inhabit more than one body at a time. He'd had no
opportunity to explore the possibilities of the device. But he'd worked
out some angles since.

And because of it, he knew intuitively what Zani had been doing when he
arrived. With closed eyes, hidden by her hand, she'd been receiving
something that came from somewhere else. The two other children had kept
silent. Hod clicked his tongue as a warning of Gail's and Soames'
approach. And Zani put her hand in her pocket quickly and opened her
eyes. She'd put something away. And Soames knew with certainty that
she'd been receiving a message from Fran, in the teeth of merciless
watching and probably microphonic eavesdropping on every word.

But the children's belt with the sensory-transmitters and receivers had
been taken from them.

* * * * *

Little Mal said politely:

"Fran." A pause. "Where is?"

"I'd like to know," Soames told her.

"That's almost the only thing they're ever questioned about, nowadays,"
said Gail. "As a security measure only Captain Moggs and enlisted
personnel without classified information, and the police who're hunting
for Fran, are allowed to talk to them."

"Fran's been gone--how long? A week? Over?" Soames scowled. "How can he
hide? He knows little English! He doesn't even know how to act so he
won't be spotted if he walks down a street!"

Gail said with an odd intonation:

"I'm afraid he's in the wilds somewhere. He won't know how to get food.
He'll be in danger from wild animals. I'm terribly afraid for him!"

Soames looked at her sharply.

"How'd he get away?"

"He roamed around, like boys do," said Gail. "He made friends, more or
less, with the children of a staff sergeant's family. It was thought
there could be no harm in that. And one morning he left here apparently
to go and play with them, and they didn't see him, and he hasn't been
seen since."

Hod was on his stomach again, doggedly working over a book, murmuring
English words as he turned the pages from one picture to another. Mal
and Zani looked from the face of Soames to that of Gail, and back again.

"They understand more than they can speak," said Gail.

Soames sea