written there.

"_Help Fran_," he read. "_You Must!_"

* * * * *

He felt her hand swiftly smoothing the message away. Rage swept over
him. Instantly he knew what had happened. Fran's escape from Calumet
Lake had proved that he knew that his communications were intercepted
and directionally analyzed. Therefore the other children were no longer
a means by which he might be trapped. So their communicators had been
taken away from them for the second time, and now they were watched with
an unceasing closeness. Every glance, every word, every gesture was
noted.

"This has to be quick," said Soames coldly, for her to hear. "I would
help him, but he'd want to get in touch with his people."

Gail opened her eyes again. Her image in the mirror nodded.

"And if he did," said Soames as coldly as before, "they'd come here and
conquer us. And I'd rather that we killed each other off than that the
most kindly-disposed of conquerors enslaved us."

He felt her hand again smoothing the spilled face-powder. She wrote in
it. He knew what she had written before she dropped her eyes to it. He
couldn't believe it. She'd written three words, no, two words and a
numeral. Soames felt an almost physical shock. He was incredulous. If
this was true ...

Then he felt a hand closed firmly on Gail's shoulder. Captain Moggs
spoke, authoritative and stern and reproachful:

"_Gail! How could you! You have one of those horrible telepathic things
too! This is a very grave matter, Gail!_"

Then the contact was broken. Captain Moggs had snatched away Gail's
communicator.

Raging, Soames took Fran and left that spot which was undoubtedly
pin-pointed by now. As they sped away he tried to consider the meaning
of the two words and the numeral which was completely unbelievable at
first thought.

* * * * *

Shortly after sunrise he bought a two-day-old newspaper. It was the
latest he could find for sale. He rode a certain distance and stopped
where the highway made an especially dramatic turn and there was a
turn-out for tourists to park in while they admired the view. He stopped
there and deliberately read the news affecting war and peace and the
children and therefore Gail. At the end he folded the newspaper
painstakingly and with careful self-control tore it to bits. Then he
said angrily:

"Fran, a question it never occurred to me to ask you before."

He posed the question. Fran