t, he was transferred to a place that
looked like a military jail, and left alone. He was not told what his
status was.

When someone came and asked him questions about his attitude, Purcell
felt quite sure that what they were doing to him was illegal. He
stated that he was going on a hunger strike until he was allowed to
have visitors and see a lawyer.

The next time the dinner hour arrived, they gave him nothing to eat.
There had been no food in the cell since, and that was probably two
weeks ago. He was not sure just how long, for during part of the
second week his memory had become garbled. He dimly remembered
something that might have been delirium, which could have lasted more
than one day.

Perhaps the military who wanted the antitoxins for germ warfare were
waiting quietly for him either to talk or die.

* * * * *

Ronny got up from the grass and went into the kitchen, stumbling in
his walk like a beginning toddler.

"Choc-mil?" he said to his mother.

She poured him some and teased gently, "What's the matter, Ronny--back
to baby-talk?"

He looked at her with big solemn eyes and drank slowly, not answering.

In the cell somewhere distant, Dr. Purcell, famous biochemist, began
waveringly trying to rise to his feet, unable to remember hunger as
anything separate from him that could ever be ended, but weakly
wanting a glass of water. Ronny could not feed him with the chocolate
milk. Even though this was another himself, the body that was drinking
was not the one that was thirsty.

He wandered out into the backyard again, carrying the glass.

"Bang," he said deceptively, pointing with his hand in case his mother
was looking. "Bang." Everything had to seem usual; he was sure of
that. This was too big a thing, and too private, to tell a grownup.

On the way back from the sink, Dr. Purcell slipped and fell and hit
his head against the edge of the iron cot. Ronny felt the edge gashing
through skin and into bone, and then a relaxing blankness inside his
head, like falling asleep suddenly when they are telling you a fairy
story while you want to stay awake to find out what happened next.

"Bang," said Ronny vaguely, pointing at a tree. "Bang." He was ashamed
because he had fallen down in the cell and hurt his head and become
just Ronny again before he had finished sending out his equations. He
tried to make believe he was alive again, but it didn't work.

You could never ma