"Oh no we won't!" In a panic Higgins had suddenly gripped her shoulders. "I don't know what he's talkin' about. It's all crazy talk! Crazy--" "Higgins, take your hands off me. How dare you?" "You think I'm lettin' a crazy machine say things about me? I'm tellin' you--" "Take your hands off me, Higgins." Now the struggling Babs was frightened. It sent a horrible jangle through Toory. There was something wrong, and Miss Babs was frightened about it. Suddenly he saw that she was trying to scream and Higgins in a panic had put his hand over her mouth. Within Toory the jangling confusion grew worse, as if some horrible corroding acid burned at him. He had a permanent-order always to avoid danger to Miss Babs. Wasn't she in danger now? It was so terribly hard, trying to puzzle things out, without training-memory or an order. He could feel the jangle mounting to a bursting tumult. If only he could think for himself, act for himself, without any orders. He heard himself saying, "I want to hold your hand, and lead you, Miss Babs." The words so startled the two humans in front of him that they ceased to struggle. It was as though Model 2 RY suddenly had crossed a great abyss, and it was terrifying. "Why--why Toory--" Babs cried. "I want to hold your hand and lead you, Miss Babs. I am going to do it now." Toory's great metal legs clanked as he took a slow step forward. "The thing's gone wild," Higgins choked. "It's comin' at us! Tell it to keep away from us! _You_ tell it--" "W-wait, Toory," Babs whispered. "You hear?" Higgins almost screamed, "You hear that, you crazy--" "No," Toory said. The disobedience was a shattering thing. It so frightened Toory, hearing his own voice say it, that his huge body stood twitching with a chaos impossible to control. "I am going to lead you home, Miss Babs. It is better for us to go home now." It was more than just independent thinking. Toory didn't know what it was; but in all the tumult within him there seemed to be the knowledge that this was the only right thing for him to do. Now he was clanking forward with determined steps. Higgins jumped behind Babs and gasped wildly, "You keep away!" "No," Toory said. In the confused darkness of her blindness the girl was stammering something. Toory did not hear it. His swinging, heavy hand reached down and she recoiled from it, as if terrified by his inhuman strength. In his awkwardness he reached out again, and she gave a little cry, and wilted down at his feet. He said, "Miss Babs, I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten you. I will carry you home now." It was as though a floodgate had broken, releasing in Toory an enormous surge of shining confidence. Higgins had backed further down the path, and Toory's eye-beams swung to his pallid, panic-stricken face. "You keep away from me!" Higgins gasped. "No," Toory said. "You got to take orders from me! Do you hear?" * * * * *