decided to materialize here, to be with you."

"But, if they find you here--," Marc gave it up. Things couldn't get any worse. "I hope you're happy about this." He waved his hand tragically at the cell.

"Well," said Toffee slowly. "I can think of better places. Let's leave."

"And how do you propose to get out of here?"

"You mean they intend to keep us here?"

"It is likely, considering your performance before the judge last night, that we shall rot in this place."

"We'll just have to get out." Toffee's brow wrinkled sternly.

Marc looked grieved but made no reply. After several moments of concentrated thought, his face lit up.

"Now, look Toffee," he said, "You say that you can materialize anywhere. Suppose I doze off for a while, do you suppose you could manage to "come to" outside and get the keys to this trap? After all, they don't have our names, our real ones, on any of the records yet."

"I could do it with my eyes closed," Toffee cried happily.

"Well, don't get fancy about it."

Marc stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes, and everything became quiet in the cell for a time. Toffee waited expectantly but nothing happened. Marc swung his legs over the edge of the bed and cupped his chin in his hands.

"It's no use," he sighed. "I've too much on my mind."

"Try again," urged Toffee.

"It's no use I tell you."

Toffee sat up and glanced down at Marc. Slowly an intense expression crept over her face. Quietly, she reached down and removed one of her shoes, and regarded it sadly. She leaned over the edge of the bed and poised it over Marc's head. Closing her eyes, she swung the shoe downward as swiftly as she could. Marc slumped to the floor soundlessly.

Marc had been right in assuming that Joseph wouldn't be there to open the door for them. He fitted the key into the lock and turned it.

"You needn't have hit me so hard," he grumbled. 

 Prev. P 16/24 next