dly down the stairs.
Once on the street, he began to run. It did not occur to him to feel
ridiculous at dragging along behind him, on the end of a string, some
object which he could not see.

* * * * *

"Okay," Ann said. "But what _is_ it?" She sat on the divan looking at
the book.

"I don't know, but I think it's alien."

"_I_ think it's a comic book. In some foreign language--or maybe in
classical Greek for all we know." She pointed to an illustration. "Isn't
this like the fish you caught? Of course it is. And look at the
fisherman--his clothes are funny looking, but I'll bet he's telling
about the one that got away."

"Damn it, don't joke! What about _this_?" He waved the string.

"Well, what about it?"

"It's extra-dimensional. It's...." He jerked the string with nervous
repetition and, suddenly, something was in his hand. Surprised, he
dropped it. It disappeared and he felt the tug on the end of the string.

"There _is_ something!" He began jerking the string and it was there
again. This time he held it, looking at it with awe.

It was neither very big nor very heavy. It was probably made out of some
kind of glass or plastic. The color was dazzling, but that was not what
made him turn his head away--it was the shape of the thing. Something
was wrong with its surfaces. Plane melted into plane, the surface curved
and rejoined itself. He felt dizzy.

"What is it, John?"

"Something--something like a Klein Bottle--or a tesseract--or maybe both
of them together." He looked at it for a moment and then turned away
again. It was impossible to look at it very long. "It's something built
to cut through our three-dimensional space," he said. He dropped it,
then tugged. The thing dropped out of sight and reappeared again,
rolling up the string toward his hand.

That was when he lost control. He lay down on the floor and howled in a
seizure of laughter that was like crying.

"_John!_" Ann said primly. "John Ward, you _stop_!" She went out of the
room and returned with a glass half full of whisky.

Ward got up from the floor and weakly slouched in a chair. He took a
long drink from the glass, lit his pipe with great deliberation, and
spoke very softly. "Well," he said, "I think we've got the answer."

"Have we?"

"Sure. It was there all the time and I couldn't see it. I always thought
it was strange we couldn't get in touch with the Outspacers. I had Bobby
try tonight--_he_ cou