From another drawer he brought out a high-powered flashlight. He went to the open window and crawled out. Basil hesitated, then followed him. * * * * * Behind them was the building they had just left, light streaming from the open window and from half a dozen other windows. To their right loomed the dark bulk of the dome that housed the gigantic Brain, an obsidian shape in the night that hulked into the heavens, blotting out a hemisphere of stars. Ahead, above the horizon, was a crescent moon that served to silhouette the hill and its horizon of trees. Around them were dark shapes, motionless. Earl kept the flashlight ready, but didn't use it as they stole swiftly forward. Neither man spoke, but their breathing was a stentorian sound that blended with distant traffic noises and the nearby chirping of a cricket, and the rustling of weeds as they forced them aside in their passage. They reached the hill and went forward more slowly, using caution as they remembered the effects of the paralysis gun. Now Earl was remembering the way he had come before, finding landmarks in the darkness. At last he stopped and touched Basil's arm to bring him to a halt. "It's on the other side of these bushes," he whispered. "I'll use the flash." He parted the branches. Suddenly a cone of light exploded in the darkness. "Right there," Basil said. Then, in surprise, "It's gone!" "Naturally," Earl said in some disgust. "It fits the pattern." "What pattern?" Basil asked. Earl was slow in answering. He said, "I don't know. I just felt it. Or maybe I do know. Nadine and that guy Ladd were small and got big in a hurry. What was to keep that thing from doing the same? That's part of it. The other part is just a feeling. They don't seem to want to advertise to the world that they're here. Maybe the damn thing became invisible or something. With stasis spheres and small people that get big, and paralysis guns, what's so impossible about that ship or whatever it is getting big and becoming invisible? I'll bet it's still there." But though they passed back and forth over the entire area, with increasing boldness, they encountered nothing, visible or invisible, that was out of the ordinary. There was a concave depression in the soil where Earl remembered the puffball shape to have been. Even fresh scars in the dirt around the depression. For a while Earl blundered through the underbrush calling Nadine's name cautiously, without hope. Finally they were forced to give up and return to the lab building. "We could call the police," Basil said doubtfully. "Oh, sure," Earl said, his voice harsh. "What would we tell them? Dr. Glassman would be called in. Next they'd call the boys in the white jackets." "Maybe they're just the boys we need," Basil said. "Or a good stiff drink. I like the idea of the drink." * * * * *