cs. He had a startling command of both, and
some of the questions he asked Travis were embarrassing. But the boy
was leaning forward, breathlessly drinking in the answers, when Tude
came back.

The big man loomed over them suddenly on his quiet rag-bound feet,
frightening the boy and causing the girl to flinch. He made a number
of singularly impolite remarks, but Travis said nothing and bided his
time. He regarded the big man with patient joy, considering with
delight such bloodthirsty effects as judo could produce on this
one--Fors and Bonken be damned--if they ever untied his hands.

Eventually, unable to get a rise out of him, the big man shoved a
paper down before his nose and told him to sign it. He pulled out that
wickedly clean knife and freed Travis' hand just enough for him to
move his wrist. Hoping for the best, Travis signed. Tude chuckled,
said something nastily to the girl, the girl said something chilling
in return, and the big man cuffed her playfully on the shoulder. Then
he lumbered away.

Travis sat glaring after him. The contract, the need to escape flooded
back into his mind. The eclipse might be ending even now. Unico would
already be here, probably one or two others as well. And this ransom
business might take a week. He swore to himself. Pat Travis, the
terror of the skies, held captive by a bunch of third rate musical
comedy pirates while millions lay in wait in the city above. And oh my
Lord, he thought, stricken, what will people say when they hear--he
had to get out.

He glanced cautiously at the girl and the boy, who were gazing at him
ingenuously. He saw instantly that the way, if there was a way, lay
through them. But the plan had not yet formed when the boy leaned
forward and spoke.

"I have an odd thing in my head," Lappy said bashfully, "that
nevertheless radiates joy to my mind. In my reading I have seen things
leap together from many books, forming a whole, and the whole is rare.
Can you, in your wisdom, confirm or deny what I have seen? It is
this--"

He spoke a short series of sentences. Navel tried to shush him,
embarrassed, but he doggedly went on. And Travis, stricken, found
himself suddenly paying close attention.

For the words Lappy said, with minor variations, were Isaac Newton's
Laws of Motion.

* * * * *

"There are the seven planets," Navel was saying gravely, "and the two
lights--that is, the sun and the moon. The first planet, t