shoulder, where you cut yourself sliding down our cellar
door. Go to sleep."

Sliding down, sliding down into clouds of sleep. Sleep! She'd drugged
him! Something in the coffee!

* * * * *

He jerked up, reaching for her, but she ducked aside, drawing on the
tops to a pair of frilly pajamas. "Ellen, you--"

"Shh!" She pulled a robe over the pajamas and lay down, outside the
blankets. "Shh, Will. You have to sleep. You're _so_ tired, _so_
sleepy...."

Her voice was soothing, and the fingers along the base of his neck was
relaxing. He reached out a last inquiring finger of doubt for the
feeling of danger, and couldn't find it. This was as wrong as the
other things had been wrong--but his mind let go, and he was suddenly
asleep.

He awoke slowly, with a thick feeling in his mouth. Drugged! And the
sense of danger had failed him again! He swung over sharply, reaching
for her, but she was gone.

His clothes lay beside him, neatly pressed, and he grabbed for them.
There was a pair of socks, too large, but better than none. His
muscles felt wrong as he began dressing, but the feeling wore away.
The clock said that less than two hours had passed. If she'd put a
drug in the coffee, it must have been one to which he was less
sensitive than the average. She'd probably never suspected that he
would waken.

A trace of fear struck through him, but it was weaker than before, and
it seemed normal enough, under the circumstances. He fumbled over the
shoelaces, and then grabbed up his coat.

She'd bring _them_ back! Maybe they'd used her as a spy!

But he couldn't understand why she'd bothered to press his clothes.
And the apartment still puzzled him. Even if her story was true, it
simply wasn't the sort of a place where a girl like her would live.
Nor was it fixed as she might have arranged a place, even allowing for
what he might have done to it in seven months.

He reached automatically for the lock in the dim hall, and realized
his hands knew the door, whatever else was true. Then he went out and
down the stairs. He heard a babble of kids' voices, part in English
and part in a sort of Spanish. That meant that things were normal, to
the casual observer along the street. But he knew it was poor evidence
that things really were as they should be. He stood in the comparative
darkness of the hall, staring out. Nothing was wrong, so far as he
could see. He had to risk it.

Hawkes shoved past