* * * * *

Pretending to have seen something where the container had struck the
wall, he ran over and began to feel along the edge of the panel. When
his fingertips encountered only the slightest of seams, he doubled his
fists and pounded. He thought he could detect a faint scurrying on the
other side of the wall.

Barnsley laughed aloud. He raised one foot almost waist-high and drove
the heel of his boot through the translucent observation panel. Seizing
the splintered edges of the hole, he tugged and heaved until he had torn
out enough of the thin wall to step through to the other side. He found
himself entering a room not much larger than the passage behind him.

To his left, there was a flicker of blue from a crack in the wall. The
crack widened momentarily, emitting a gabble of mushy voices. The blue
cloth was twitched away by a cluster of stubby tentacles, whereupon the
crack closed to an almost imperceptible line. Barnsley fingered his
beard to hide a grin and turned the other way.

He stumbled into a number of low stools surmounted by spongy, spherical
cushions. One of these he tore off for a pillow before going on. At the
end of the little room, he sought for another crack, kicked the panel
a bit to loosen it, and succeeded in sliding back a section of wall.
The passage revealed was about the size of those he had been forced
to explore during the past two weeks, but it had an unfinished,
behind-the-scenes crudeness in appearance. Barnsley pottered along
for about fifteen minutes, during which time the walls resounded with
distant running and he encountered several obviously improvised
barriers.

He kicked his way through one, squeezed through an opening that had not
been closed quite in time, restrained a wicked impulse to cross some
wiring that must have been electrical, and at last allowed himself to be
diverted into a passage leading back to his original cell. He amused
himself by trying to picture the disruption he had caused to the
honeycomb of passageways.

"There!" he grinned to himself. "That should keep them from bothering me
for a few hours. Maybe one or two of them will get in trouble over it--I
hope!"

He arranged his stolen cushion where the wall met the floor and lay
down.

A thought struck him. He sat up to examine the cushion suspiciously.
It appeared to be an equivalent to foam rubber. He prodded and twisted
until convinced that no wires or other unexpe