you're anxious to get to your work? We've already wasted nearly an hour."

Marc nodded, anxious to be away from the place at any cost.

"I'll have to ask you to replace your blindfolds," the doctor said smoothly. "It's of prime importance that you do not know where this place is located. I wouldn't like to see you leading the police back here."

While the business with the blindfolds was being transacted, the forgotten young man at the door seemed to recover his vagrant breath. He straightened up and glared at Toffee.

"And you ain't no lady, either!" he proclaimed spitefully.

Toffee clawed the air blindly.

"Lead me to him!" she wailed. "Just lead me to him!"

Sheriff Miller looked grieved. His expression was the one of a man who had been tried beyond endurance. His eyes, as though seeking escape, darted to the darkened window, then back to the disordered couple standing before him. He tried vainly to resist a feeling that the atmosphere in the little office had gotten too heavy for the structure's thin walls. Somewhere, somehow, something would have to give way soon. And it seemed, to him, that his sanity stood a good chance of being the first to go ... if it hadn't already.

"Now, let's have that again," he drawled, dragging his reluctant eyes back to Marc and Toffee.

"We were kidnapped," Marc began.

"... by the man who's ..." Toffee continued impatiently.

The sheriff's hand moved for silence more swiftly than either of them had supposed it could. His eyes moved beseechingly toward the ceiling. His lips murmured a silent prayer ... or curse.

"I know! I know!" he groaned. "By the man who's goin' to blow up the whole ding blasted world! You ain't said a word about nothin' else since my deputies come draggin' you in here. And if I have to listen to any more about it, I'm going to throw you two in jail and have the key melted down for a watch fob! It is the craziest thing I ever heard of in all my whole natural life."

"Natural life?" Toffee exclaimed acidly. "He calls life with a face like that natural! If that's nature, I'll take tabasco!"

"What's the matter with my face?" the sheriff asked belligerently.

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