"She's got Koyle's records!" stated the deep voice then. "What's in those boxes?" Nasal-voice snapped. "D-d-don't shake me!" wept Peer. "Papers and stuff--I don't know. They don't never tell me nothing," she wailed, "because I'm just a little girl!" "Yes, you're just a little girl," said Nasal-voice, exasperated. "You're not going to get much bigger either." "Cut that," said the deep voice. "No sense scaring the kid." "Well, you're not figuring on taking them back, are you?" Nasal-voice inquired. "No. Just Flauval. The colonel will be glad to chat with Flauval a bit, now that she's turned up alive again. Koyle may have told her plenty before we soured him on her. But there's no point in making the rest of them desperate. It's easier when they surrender." There was a short pause. Then the deep voice addressed Peer with a sort of amiable gruffness: "So they all went off to bury the boxes, but you don't know where they went--is that it, little girl?" "Oh, sure!" Peer said, anxious to please. "Yes, sir! I know that!" "WHERE?" said both voices together, chorusing for the third time. "It's that big Mound over there," Peer said; and Channok started nervously. "It's got a big door on top. No," she added, "I guess you can't see from down here--and you can't see from the ship. That's why I came out. To watch for'm. But you can see it plain from the top of the rocks." "That would be the old reservoir or whatever it was we passed back there," said the deep voice. "That's right," said Peer. "That's just what Flauval called it at lunch! The word you said. There was water there oncet, she said. They flew the boxes over with jets, but they'll be back before it's dark, they said." There was a brief silence. "Scares me when it's dark, it does!" grumbled the idiot-child. "Well, that ties it up!" the deep voice said, satisfied. "It's the exact kind of stunt Flauval would try. But she's outsmarted herself, this time!" * * * * * "How do you figure on handling it?" Nasal-voice inquired. "Get up on one of those rocks with the kid where you can watch both that 'mound' and the lock of their ship. Yes, I know it's more trouble that way--but don't, ah, do anything conclusive about the--uh--aforementioned, before we've corralled the rest! Much more useful while capable of inhaling. Hostage possibilities. Inducement to surrender!" "Uh-huh," Nasal-voice said comprehendingly. "Yes, sir!" added Peer. There was another short pause. "Might as well skip the circumlocutions," the deep voice continued. "Barely human! I'll send a couple of men through the ship and, if it's empty, I'll leave one of them in the forward lock where you can see him. That's just in case anyone slips past us and comes back. The rest of us will go over to the reservoir in the launch. If the entrance is where she says it is, we've got them bottled. If it looks right, we'll go in."