"Well, anyhow," Fernack said, "do you want anything else?"

"Not right now," Malone said. "I'll let you know, though. And--thanks,
John Henry. No matter why you're doing this, thanks."

"I don't deserve 'em." Fernack muttered. "And I hope you get caught in
some kind of deadfall and have to come screaming to the cops."

That, Malone reflected, was the second time a cop had suggested his
yelling if he got into trouble.

Hadn't the police force ever heard of telephones?

He said good-by and flipped off.

Then he stared at the screen for a little while, as his cigarette burned
down between his fingers. At last he put the cigarette out and went
downstairs again to the bar.

If he had to do some heavy thinking, he told himself, there was
absolutely no reason why he couldn't enjoy himself a little while doing
it.

* * * * *

The evening rush had begun, and Malone found himself a stool by the
simple expedient of slipping into one while a drinker's back was turned.
Once ensconced, he huddled himself up like an old drunk, thus
effectively cutting himself off from interruptions, and lit another
cigarette. Ray was down at the other end of the bar, chatting with a
red-headed woman and her pale, bald escort. Malone sighed and set
himself to the job of serious, constructive thinking.

How, he asked himself, do you go about catching a person who can vanish
away like so much smoke?

Well, Malone could think of one solution, but it was pretty bloody.
Nailing the kids to a wall would probably work, but he couldn't say much
else for it. There had to be another way out. For some reason Malone
just couldn't see himself with a mouthful of nails, a hammer and a
teen-ager.

It sounded just a little too messy.

Then, of course, there were handcuffs.

That sounded a little better. The trouble was that Malone simply didn't
have enough information, and knew it. Obviously, the kids could carry
stuff with them when they teleported; the stuff they stole proved that.
And their clothes, Malone added. Apparently the kids didn't arrive at
wherever they went stark staring naked.

But how close to a teleport did the things he carried have to be?

In other words. Malone thought, if you put handcuffs on a teleport,
would the handcuffs vanish when the teleport did? And did that include
the part of the cuff you were holding?

What happened if you snapped half the cuff around your own wrist first?
Did you go