e, though what I don't know."
"No," Fred said bitterly.
There was a long silence. Curt broke it by saying, "What did you expect
to accomplish by my vanishing?"
Fred told him of Horace's shouting to his wife, "Ethel! I've got it!",
and the others seeming to have a flash of divination or insight just
before they vanished.
"I wanted," he explained dully, "to be with you when it happened, in the
hopes I could get something more than I have to go on. In that way I
might be able to find out something so I could bring my father back. And
Mom." He began to cry.
"I see," Curt said, calm and a little subdued. "It's possible that may
come. After what I've seen happen I can admit it as a possibility."
"Then you will make every effort to tell me?" Fred asked.
Curt smiled wryly. "You make it sound inevitable. But--yes, I will."
Fred's eyes were large and round. "I've got to find the mechanism. I've
got to go where they've vanished to and show them how to get back!" He
turned his eyes on Curt. "Don't you hate me?" he pleaded. "I'm just the
same as a murderer!"
"No, my son," Curt said gently. "Wherever your father is, your mother is
with him now. If--" A startled expression appeared on his face. "So
_that's_ it," he almost whispered.
"_What's_ it?" Fred asked. "Tell me. Please tell me. I've got to know,
you know. You promised!"
Curt frowned in a visible effort to jerk himself back. His eyes, holding
a faraway look, rested on Fred's face, looked at it, and through it.
"You promised!" Fred screamed. "Tell me!"
Curt opened his mouth as though to speak. His lips smiled.
And--he was no longer there.
Fred was alone, with the picnic lunch on the white square of tablecloth,
with the gleaming Cadillac a few yards away, with the two white and
black spotted cows grazing a short distance away, with the noisy little
brook nearby.
Alone....
* * * * *
He became aware of a police siren growing louder. He became aware he was
behind a wheel, that there were cars in front of him veering wildly out
of his way. The speedometer needle pointed at ninety.
How had he arrived here? He took his foot off the gas. He was driving a
Cadillac. Curt's. But Curt was gone. That was it! He had started out to
look for the police.
He pulled over to the side of the road as the police car came screaming
up. Shakily he told them about the disappearances. Any doubts they might
have had were held in re
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