while now," said
Polly. "This is his first day out of the hospital. We mustn't tire him."
She crossed to the polawindow, adjusted it to neutral gray, turned the
selectacol, and the room's color dominance shifted to green. "There,
that's more restful," she said. "Now, if there's anything you need you
just ring the bell there by your bed. The autobutle will know where to
find us."

The Bullones left, and Orne crossed to the window, looked out at the
pool. The young woman hadn't come back. When the chauffeur-driven
limousine flitter had dropped down to the house's landing pad, Orne had
seen a parasol and sunhat nodding to each other on the blue tiles beside
the pool. The parasol had shielded Polly Bullone. The sunhat had been
worn by a shapely young woman in swimming tights, who had rushed off
into the house.

She was no taller than Polly, but slender and with golden red hair
caught under the sunhat in a swimmer's chignon. She was not
beautiful--face too narrow with suggestions of Bullone's cragginess, and
the eyes overlarge. But her mouth was full-lipped, chin strong, and
there had been an air of exquisite assurance about her. The total effect
had been one of striking elegance--extremely feminine.

Orne looked beyond the pool: wooded hills and, dimly on the horizon, a
broken line of mountains. The Bullones lived in expensive isolation.
Around them stretched miles of wilderness, rugged with planned neglect.

_Time to report in_, he thought. Orne pressed the neck stud on his
transceiver, got Stetson, told him what had happened to this point.

"All right," said Stetson. "Go find the daughter. She fits the
description of the gal you saw by the pool."

"That's what I was hoping," said Orne.

He changed into light-blue fatigues, went to the door of his room, let
himself out into a hall. A glance at his wristchrono showed that it was
shortly before noon--time for a bit of scouting before they called
lunch. He knew from his brief tour of the house and its similarity to
the home of his childhood that the hall let into the main living salon.
The public rooms and men's quarters were in the outside ring. Secluded
family apartments and women's quarters occupied the inner section.

* * * * *

Orne made his way to the salon. It was long, built around two sections
of the tetragon, and with low divans beneath the view windows. The floor
was thick pile rugs pushed one against another in a crazy patc