ilent pain smothering me like a force-blanket. I made an effort and
cleared my throat.

"Lucy, go to bed and turn on the hypno and try to get some sleep."

Lucy stood up obediently, but she shook her head. "You go, dear," she
said, her voice firm. "I can't. I--"

The roof buzzer sounded. Somebody had landed in a copter and wanted us.

"Don't answer," I said quickly. "There's nobody we want to see--"

But she had already pushed the button to open the door.

It was Bet Milen, the girl Hal used to go around with.

I braced myself. This might be bad. She might have cared more for Hal
than we had guessed.

But she didn't look grief-stricken. She looked excited, and determined,
and a little bit frightened.

She scarcely glanced at me. She went right up to Lucy and took both
Lucy's hands in hers.

"Well," she said in a clipped, tense voice, "we made it."

Then Lucy broke for the first time. The tears ran down her face and she
didn't even wipe them away. "Are you _certain_?"

"Positive. And I got word to him. We'd agreed on a code. That's why he
didn't want me there today--we couldn't trust ourselves not to betray
it, either way."

I stood there staring at them, bewildered.

"What's this all about?" I demanded. "Have you two cooked up some crazy
scheme to rescue Hal? I hope to heaven not! It would ruin all of us,
including him!"

* * * * *

The wild daydreams I'd had myself flashed through my mind--the drug that
would seem to kill him and wouldn't, the anonymous false accusation of
subversion, the previous secret marriage. All impossible, all fatal.

Lucy disengaged her hands from the girl's and slipped her arm through
mine.

"You tell him, Bet," she said gently. "You're the one who should."

I'd never noticed how pretty the girl was till then, when she stood
there with her face flushed and her eyes straight on mine. A pang went
through me; if only she and Hal could have--

"No, Mr. Sturt," she said, "we haven't rescued Hal. He's gone. But we've
rescued part of him. I'm going to have his baby."

"Bet's going to live with us and be our daughter, Frank," Lucy
explained. "Hal and she and I worked it out in these two weeks, after
they came to me and told me how they felt about each other. We couldn't
tell you till we were sure; I couldn't bear to have you hope and then be
disappointed--it would be enough for me to have to suffer that."

"That is, I'll come if you want me her