The flaring hope which repulsed the mertha from his mind for the brief period of action there in the cabin had gone out. Again anguish crept into his brain and contorted it. He opened his mouth to shriek, but instead tore the shirt from off his back and stuffed it into his mouth. Gagged, the poor wretch fell to the floor writhing, deprived of the slight relief that screams would have brought to the mind tormented into physical action, but too anguished to realize that screams could not be heard by his earless pursuers. His mind was filled constantly with torment, now. He hoped and prayed for the arrival of the guards but they did not come. It beat against his brain, pound, pound, pound. In his mind was only the frantic I can't stand it, I can't stand it, I.... * * * * * Later in the day Purnell was asked to go to Warden Hughes' office. He entered the room with great interest and saw the warden seated at his desk with a glum expression on his face. One of the Zirthans was standing in front of the desk, but the other one and the two mertha were not in the room. "Come in, Mr. Purnell," said the warden. "The prisoner got away, the first one to escape since we brought the mertha here two years ago. I waited for you to come before hearing Rol's full report. Here, put on this headset and you can 'hear' his thoughts." The warden handed Purnell one of the sets from the squat machine. Purnell noticed that the warden and Rol were each wearing one and he quickly adjusted his. The Zirthan's thoughts sounded deep in his mind, almost like hearing, since his brain translated the thoughts into English words, but yet different enough for Purnell to realize that it wasn't ordinary speech. "Dorta and I, with the mertha, tracked the prisoner to the final slope of the ridge. Here we had to dismount and follow on foot. At this point we came close enough to sense the man's thought-pattern, so we know we were following the right man. Then he evidently reached the top and speeded up, for we lost touch again. The mertha were far ahead of us when we finally reached the top of the ridge. When we came close to them, they were running around and around a cabin, which we first took to be abandoned, perched at the edge of the cliff. We were still not close enough to sense the fugitive when suddenly the mertha stopped running and started casting around. They had lost the thought-pattern. "We had a clear view of the only door of the cabin and we found later that all the windows were nailed shut. We approached the cabin to investigate but before we reached the door it opened and a man came out. Dorta went on past the man into the cabin, which he searched quickly. But he found no one there. I stopped the man and scanned his mind lightly for pattern and knowledge of the fugitive. He was not the escaped convict nor had he seen or heard anyone.