de at this point.
Also, because of the rocky hills at this end of the island, there were
places which were spared the direct effects of the bomb, and grasses and
trees began growing there. That's why it was decided to leave that section
as a game preserve when the Government built the capital on the southern
part of the island." His finger moved down the map. "The upper three miles
of the island, down to here, where it begins to widen, are all game
preserve. There's a high wall here which separates it from the city, and
the ruins of the bridges which connected with the mainland have been
removed, so the animals can't get back across any more.

"Two years after he arrived, the Nipe was almost caught. He had managed,
somehow--we're not sure yet exactly how--to get here from Asia. According
to the psychologists who have been studying him, he apparently does not
believe that human beings are any more than trained animals; he was
looking then--as he is apparently still looking--for the 'real' rulers of
Earth. He expected to find them, of course, in Government City. Needless
to say," said the colonel with a touch of irony, "he failed."

"But he was seen?" asked Stanton.

"He was seen. And pursued. But he got away easily, heading north. The
island was searched, and the police were ready to start an inch-by-inch
going over of the island two days later. But the Nipe hit and robbed a
chemical supply house in northern Pennsylvania, killing two men, so the
search was called off.

[Illustration]

"It wasn't until two years later, after exhaustive analysis of the pattern
of his raids had given us something to work with, that we decided that he
must have found an opening into one of the tunnels up here in the game
preserve." He gestured again at the map. "It wouldn't take him long to see
that no human being had been down there in a long time. It was a perfect
place for his base."

"How does he move in and out?" Stanton asked.

"This way." The colonel traced a finger down one of the red lines on the
map, southward, until he came to a spot only a little over two miles from
the southernmost tip of the island. The line turned abruptly toward the
western edge of the island, where it stopped. "This tunnel goes underneath
the Hudson River at this point, and emerges on the other side. It's only
one of several that do so. They're all flooded now; the sun bomb caved
them in when the primary shock wave hit the surface of the river.

"In