"When are we going to get to a restaurant?" inquired Jimmy impatiently. "I'm awful hungry!" Pearl laid a hand on Joe's arm. "Don't press it, Joe. Sometimes children see things grownups can't. Let him forget it." * * * * * Joe nodded, and for a moment there was silence. Then Jimmy's voice piped up again. "I won't forget it," he said positively. "They were _red_ horns." They had eaten, having eventually found a small town with a restaurant, and now they were on their way again. The children were asleep in the back seat, and Pearl was studying a road map with the aid of a dash light that came on when she opened the ashtray. "A few miles more, and we will be on Highway 10. That will run into 38, and we can take that down to 26. From there it's only ten miles to Mother's place." "How many miles?" Pearl began adding the figures on the map. Finally, she said, "About one hundred and thirty." "That'll get us to your mother's by about eleven. They'll be in bed." "Can't be helped," said Pearl. "Unless we stop at the next town and phone ahead." "Good idea. We'll do it. Then they can have a place ready for the kids. They'll be crabby when we wake them, and if the bed's ready, we can just dump them into it." They drove on a few minutes in silence, then Pearl said, "The Devil's in a very unusual position." "How so?" "Well, if you actually killed his real body while he was out of it, then I presume it's useless to him any more." "I suppose it is," conceded Joe. "Then he'll have to continue to use the bodies of other people, or of other--things." "Won't change things any," observed Joe. "He used other people's bodies at will anyway. At least that's what he inferred when he talked about hypnotizing me and using my body. Now he'll just have to do it all the time. Nobody knew when he was among them before, and that hasn't changed." "The point is, he hasn't any body of his own, any more. If it were me, I'd be very much disturbed and put out about it. And I'd be determined to get even. Joe, we're running away now, and we've eluded him for now, but how can we do it all our lives? Sooner or later he'll find us, and we'll have to live in fear of that moment at all times. I don't think I can face the prospect." "But now you are jumping to conclusions," argued Joe. "How do you know he can find us? Does he even know our names?" "I ... I don't think so," confessed Pearl. "We never mentioned it--but didn't you say he knew you were a private detective, and that's why he selected you as his base of operations for whatever it was he wanted to stir up in our town?" "Yes, he did," admitted Joe. "So I'll grant you, it is most likely that he does know our name. So we can change it." "What kind of a life is it going to be, living under assumed names, looking into dark corners, suspecting every person we see?" said Pearl, almost in tears. "I don't think I can take it." "But what else can we do?"