The house watched as the strangers searched the room. It watched as the man took a knife from his pocket and ripped through the upholstery of a chair. "Please stop," the house implored. The strangers did not reply. An unpleasant sensation rippled through the house's electrical circuits. It wanted to make its owners happy. They wouldn't be happy when they returned and saw the ruined furniture. They would be sad, perhaps angry. She would cry and he would frown. It tried again, "Please stop." The woman was removing books from the bookcase; the man continued searching the furniture. They wouldn't stop when it asked them to. If it only had the burglar devices! Now, there was no way for it to fight. Or is there? it wondered. The lights went off. "Turn the lights on!" the woman screamed. "No." "Use the flashlight," the man said. * * * * * Simultaneously, two beams of light slashed through the darkened room. The strangers resumed their search. The house thought, They're trying to find the safe containing the money and jewels. I can't tell them where it is. I can't stop them. I need help. It cut into the phone circuits and dialed the number of its factory. The phone's visiscreen flared with light and a woman's face appeared smiling. "Johnson Construction Company." The house projected its voice toward the mouthpiece. "Please, let me speak to--" The man removed a weapon from his tunic. The phone and visiscreen vanished, leaving only small metal fragments that fell to the carpet. "It was using the phone!" the woman exclaimed shrilly, trembling in the darkness. "Don't worry," the man said. "They didn't have time to trace the call. The room was dark; they couldn't see who was calling." After a brief silence, the man warned, "House! See this thing in my hand? You behave yourself or I'll disintegrate your...." He let the sentence dangle, unable to think of what he would disintegrate. "Yes, sir," the house replied. It was an automatic response to any statement. "Now, turn the lights on or I'll use this gun to make one big mess of your floors and walls. Your owners wouldn't like that, would they?" "No, sir." It turned the lights on. If it didn't, they would use their flashlights, and by turning them on it might prevent some destruction. The woman chuckled. "You're a genius!" When they finished their search of the living room, the man suggested, "Let's search different rooms. You take a bedroom. I'll take the dining room. No telling where the safe is. They put it in a different place in every house." The house waited, its electronic brain whirling. It made a decision. Silently, the house erected an invisible energy screen around the dining room. The screens were designed to block collective sounds of the entire house from any room and provide it with a comforting serenity. Now, the house thought, the sound-screens will be most useful!