ords there.

What a lab assistant she would make! Wasted in Set-up; anyone could
punch cards, with a little practice. Well, not anyone, but any
mathematician could. How thoroughly she knew this machine! Charley
must have told her, or her brother, plenty!

With the curve-tracer running at slow speed, she held the stylus
steadily on the words she had written on the paper; the coordinates
and rates were fed into ICWEA's brain, she derived the horrible
equations corresponding to the script, and obligingly translated these
in turn to punchings on the card.

So simple, when you saw it. But who would think of putting a burglar
alarm on an air-duct? She could go all over the building through the
walls if she chose. She was small enough to get through the ducts
easily, though the vertical sections must be tough, even for so
athletic a girl.

The punching head stopped. Virginia restored everything to its
original condition, stuck the card she had punched into a pile of
them, folded the paper and stuffed it into her pocket, and turned to
go. Norm put on the lights.

* * * * *

Startled, she whirled, churning the air with her hands to keep her
balance. He held his hand out for the paper.

"No!" she said, her voice shrill with excitement.

Wordlessly, he closed in on her, and after a brief struggle pulled the
paper out of her pocket.

It said, simply, "I love you." Norm looked at Virginia, who turned her
head away.

"I can't appreciate the joke just now, though I realize it must be
very funny. Charley will enjoy it. But what a lot of trouble. Suppose
you had got stuck in the duct, then what? Is it worth the risk? And
the violation of security is very serious."

"I'm going to quit anyway," she muttered.

So deep a voice for such a small girl! "Why did you do it?"

"Well, it all started as a joke. Charley said you were shy,
and--and--well...."

"I see. Natural enough, I suppose. And you pretended to be your
brother on the phone."

"No, I never said I was Vic," she denied, quickly.

He was handling this all wrong; he wasn't getting anywhere. All this
was just talk, evasive talk. "Charley hired you?"

"Yes. When Vic left for basic training."

"I see. Charley's quite a joker, and it was hard to refuse him."

"It was kind of a joke at first, but you're overlooking something:
he's very fond of you. He really is! He brags all the time about how
smart you are, and what a nice guy."