us little chills of alarm from time to time,
but discovered no signs of a lurking intruder, or of TT either. Then,
for half an hour or more, she'd just sat cross-legged in the grass,
waiting quietly for Tick-Tock to show up of her own accord. And the
big lunk-head hadn't obliged.

Telzey scratched a tanned knee-cap, scowling at Port Nichay's park
trees beyond the garden wall. It seemed idiotic to feel scared when
she couldn't even tell whether there was anything to be scared about!
And, aside from that, another unreasonable feeling kept growing
stronger by the minute now. This was to the effect that she should be
doing some unstated but specific thing....

In fact, that Tick-Tock _wanted_ her to do some specific thing!

Completely idiotic!

Abruptly, Telzey closed her eyes, thought sharply, "Tick-Tock?" and
waited--suddenly very angry at herself for having given in to her
fancies to this extent--for whatever might happen.

* * * * *

She had never really established that she was able to tell, by a kind
of symbolic mind-picture method, like a short waking dream,
approximately what TT was thinking and feeling. Five years before,
when she'd discovered Tick-Tock--an odd-looking and odder-behaved
stray kitten then--in the woods near the Amberdons' summer home on
Orado, Telzey had thought so. But it might never have been more than a
colorful play of her imagination; and after she got into law school
and grew increasingly absorbed in her studies, she almost forgot the
matter again.

Today, perhaps because she was disturbed about Tick-Tock's behavior,
the customary response was extraordinarily prompt. The warm glow of
sunlight shining through her closed eyelids faded out quickly and was
replaced by some inner darkness. In the darkness there appeared then
an image of Tick-Tock sitting a little way off beside an open door in
an old stone wall, green eyes fixed on Telzey. Telzey got the
impression that TT was inviting her to go through the door, and, for
some reason, the thought frightened her.

Again, there was an immediate reaction. The scene with Tick-Tock and
the door vanished; and Telzey felt she was standing in a pitch-black
room, knowing that if she moved even one step forwards, something that
was waiting there silently would reach out and grab her.

Naturally, she recoiled ... and at once found herself sitting, eyes
still closed and the sunlight bathing her lids, in the grass of th