room
opened, there was a shimmering, more obvious now, and then the door
closed behind it.

"He rejoined us just in time," Dr. Braun murmured. "Another ten minutes
and he would have ... umah ... _materialized_ down on the street."

Ross hadn't finished the discussion. He said, his face in all but pout,
"What you don't realize, Pat, is the world has gone beyond the point
where scientific discoveries can be suppressed. If we try to keep the
lid on this today, the Russians or Chinese, or somebody, will hit on it
tomorrow."

Patricia said impatiently, "Good heavens, let's don't bring the Cold War
into it."

Ross opened his mouth to snap something back at her, closed it again and
shrugged his bulky shoulders angrily.

In a matter of less than ten minutes the bedroom door reopened and this
time a grinning Crowley emerged, fully dressed. He said, "Man, that was
a devil of an experience!"

They saw him to a chair and had him talk it all through. He was candid
enough, bubbling over with it all.

In the some eleven and a half hours he'd been on his own, he had covered
quite an area of Manhattan.

Evidently the first hour had been spent in becoming used to the
startling situation. He couldn't even see himself, which, to his
surprise affected walking and even use of his hands. You had to get used
to it. Then there was the fact that he was nude and _felt_ nude and
hence uncomfortable walking about in mixed pedestrian traffic. But that
phase passed. Early in the game he found that there was small percentage
in getting into crowds. It led to all sorts of complications, including
the starting of minor rows, one person thinking another was pushing when
it was simply a matter of Crowley trying to get out from underfoot.

Then he went through a period of the wonder of it all. Being able to
walk _anywhere_ and observe people who had no suspicion that they were
being observed. It was during that phase that he had sought out the
hotel in which he had read the chesty French movie actress Brigette
Loren was in residence. Evidently, he'd hit the nail right on the head.
Brigette was at her toilette when he arrived on scene. In telling about
this, Crowley leered amusedly at Patricia from the side of his eyes. She
ignored him.

Then he'd gone through a period when the full realization of his
immunity had hit him.

At this point he turned to Braun, "Hey, Doc, you ever eaten any caviar?
You know, that Russian stuff. Supposed to be the