She came with her father the next day--a small, brown-haired girl in a trim blue suit. Toory learned afterward that she was eighteen years old. "This is Miss Babs, Toory," Erg explained. "You'll have to learn her voice well, and be quick to obey. Speak to her now." "Yes, Miss Babs," Toory said. "Talk to him, Babs," Doret urged. "Hello, Toory," Babs said. "Give me your hand. I want to grasp it." Toory's mailed hand was sheathed in a soft black glove. He was careful to keep his work-pincer retracted as he had been taught. He held out his hand, keeping it well lowered because the girl was quite small, two feet shorter than himself. Her own hand fumbled around for an instant. Fumbled because--Babs Doret was blind. "It will be comforting," she said, when her fingers at last closed over the glove. "Father, you've made me very happy." "The new training should not take more than a month," Erg said. "You must work with him an hour or two each day. You'd better practice walking with him in the city traffic, if you plan to go into the city." "Not much," Babs said. "Certainly for this summer, anyway, I'll be staying close to home." "One of my Operatives will report tomorrow," Erg told her. "I'll deliver Toory to you this afternoon.... You will learn the new tasks, Toory?" "Yes," Toory promised. Then in the big Erg truck he was taken up into the hills to the Doret summer home where he remained under wait-command in the foyer until the Instructor arrived the next day. How warmly he remembered him from the training periods in the factory. Immediately the new-task training began. It was simple, letting Babs Doret hold his dangling gloved hand, leading her where she directed him to go. For only a short while was the Erg man really needed. The three of them took long walks together so that Toory would become familiar with the neighborhood. With the Instructor intently watching, Toory soon learned to lead the girl safely through the traffic of the village streets. Quickly he developed a sixth-sense alertness to the dangers to Babs that must be seen, and avoided. That was the important thing--avoiding danger to this blind girl whose hand he held, avoiding it so that instantly with permanent order for automatic action instilled in him, his response would come with split-second timing. The voice of the Instructor remained everlastingly patient when for the hundredth time he repeated the permanent-order so that it would be impressed on Toory beyond the possibility of error. "Danger to Miss Babs must be avoided, Toory. _Danger to Miss Babs. Any danger._ Do you understand, Toory?" "Yes," Toory replied. He learned all the traffic signals quickly. He was pleased with a warmth inside him that kept getting brighter. "He's all right," the Erg man said at last. "We've certainly given him plenty of tests, Miss Doret. His reactions are all that could be desired." "Yes," Babs agreed. "You've no idea how comforting it is, how safe I feel."