It was a young boy of perhaps nine or ten. Craig caught sight of him as he motioned urgently. He wore a shabby, torn version of what appeared to be a space service uniform. "I'm not buying anything, son," Craig said, pausing briefly. "Come here, quick!" insisted the boy, his eyes large in a dirty face. "You already bought too much." The boy was motioning him to follow. He had stepped between two buildings. Craig approached him with suspicion. "What did you say?" "Slip in here quick! You bought from Nave the peddler. You bought poly, didn't ya?" "How did you...." Craig began. "Tell you later. Slip through here quick or they'll send you to _Hardy_!" The genuine fear of the youngster conveyed itself to Craig. With effort he forced his body through the space between the old buildings. At first he did not intend to follow the boy, but only to stop him for an explanation. The boy, however, continued down the tight corridor formed by the buildings. "There's a window soon," he said from ahead of Craig. "Hurry. You lost time with that peddler." Lost time? Cursing himself for becoming involved again in something he did not understand, Craig nevertheless followed as best he could. It was a tight squeeze and he found himself becoming breathless. "Dive down!" shouted the boy, looking back with terror in his eyes. Instinctively Craig did so. The rough walls tore at his suit. "Stop!" shouted a voice from behind Craig. "Stop or we fire!" Craig suddenly felt the sill of a window which opened into the building to his left. He quickly pulled himself into it. There was a sickening whine and a part of the window disintegrated in a cloud of splinters and plaster. "Through here," said the boy from the semi-darkness. "They'll blast their way inside in a minute!" Craig found himself in another empty building. He followed the boy through a doorway and felt his way as he half ran along the dark hall. "Who are _they_?" he panted. "Controllers." "Civil Control?" "Sure. You must be pretty important. I didn't get it all. But they say the controllers checked up on you after.... I'll explain later." The hall ended in a dim room piled high with plasmolite packing boxes in great disarray. The boy chose a box and lifted a lid. "Follow me. It's a passage." "Where to?" "No time now. Down here." The passage, which seemed to be constructed of plasmolite boxes, seemed somehow lit by daylight, although Craig could not actually see the source of the light. The tunnel ended in broad afternoon daylight. As he climbed out he saw a large clearing surrounded by ruins. "We're just inside the old city," the boy said. "We're safe now--unless those controllers are willing to take more chances than I think." "Wait a minute, son. You said 'old city.' You mean that this is a part of pre-war Los Angeles?" "Well, sure." "But that's supposed to be...." "Radioactive? Most of it, anyway. Good thing, too. Otherwise we'd have no place to go."