It was not late--only about 20 o'clock--when she heard a scramble and bump not far from her own means of access to the park. It was not the first time since her watch began that she had heard other adventurers, invariably small and rather scared boys who dared one another to walk for a few feet along the dirt paths, then in a panic rushed back the way they had come. But this time the steps came directly toward her--human footsteps, not the shuffle of a robot. Hidden behind a bush, Margret saw them approach--two boys of about her own age. And then, with a sickening lurch of her heart, she recognized them. She had seen them, acclaimed as heroes, on the videoscreen. They were the two who had found Madolin. She could hear every word they said. "Come on," one of them urged in a hoarse whisper. "There's nothing to be afraid of." "Yes, there is," the other objected. "Ever since then, they've got the gardeners wired to describe and report anybody they find inside the park." "I don't care. We've _got_ to find it. Give me the beamer." * * * * * Margret crouched behind the thickest part of the shrubbery, her infra-red camera at the alert. The tape-attachment was already activated. The second boy still held back. "I told you then," he muttered, "that we shouldn't have reported it at all. We should have got out of here and never said a word to anyone." "We couldn't," the first boy said, shocked. "It would have been anti-social. Haven't you ever learned anything in school?" "Well, it's anti-social to kill somebody, too, isn't it?" Margret pressed the button on the camera. Enlarged enough, even the identification discs on the boys' wristlets would show. "How could we guess there was a human being there, except us? What was she doing here, anyway? Come on, Harri, we've got to find that thing. It's taken us long enough to get a chance to sneak in here." "Maybe they've found it already," said Harri fearfully. "No, they haven't; if they had, they'd have taken us in as soon as they dusted the fingerprints." "All right, it's not anywhere on the path. Put the beamer on the ground where it will shine in front of us, and let's get down on our stomachs and hunt underneath the bushes." Grabbing her camera, Margret jumped to her feet and dashed past the startled boys. She heard a scream--that would be Harri--and then their feet pounding after her. But she had a head start, and her eyes were more accustomed to the dark than theirs could be. She reached a tree, shinnied up it, jumped from one of its limbs to another on a higher tree beneath the mobilway, chinned herself up, and made her way out safely. She went straight to Fedpol headquarters and asked for Inspector Kazazian. The frightened boys were picked up at once. They were brought into headquarters, where they had been praised and thanked before, and as soon as they saw the pictures and heard the tape-recording they confessed everything.