You could tell the couples in love. Not that there were any scenes. If there had been any in the two weeks past, they were over. But anybody who has learned to read human reactions, as I have, could recognize the agony those youngsters were going through. [Illustration] I felt a deep gratitude that Hal wasn't one of them. He'd had his share of adolescent affairs, of course, but I was sure he was still just playing around. He'd seen a lot of Bet Milen, a girl a class ahead of him in school and college, but I didn't think she meant more to him than any of the others. If she had, she'd have been along to say good-by, but he'd asked for only the two of us. She was now a laboratory assistant in our hospital and could easily have gotten the time off. It was growing late, almost midnight, and Lucy and I had to be at work tomorrow, no matter how we felt. I forced myself to talk, with Lucy's silent 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."