"Hush," said the bearded leader. And then to Peccary, "What's your name, son?" "Clarence Peccary. If you don't do as I say I'll--" He stopped short, his heart leaping as the force of his indiscretion struck him. The three men had been struck also. The two younger ones were already on the ground, one on either side of him. Only the bearded man remained mounted. He leaned forward. "I thought you looked familiar. You're _Doctor_ Peccary of the Y Hormone?" His voice was a menacing whisper. Peccary finally answered with a slow nod. "He must have flipped, running around alone like this," a man beside him said. "However, let's never insult fortune!" This was the last Dr. Peccary heard. For at that instant one of the men--he never knew which--struck him forcibly over the head with a blunt instrument. III At Humanac's controls Roger Staghorn leaped to his feet in alarm as he saw what was happening on the screen. Peccary had collapsed now. The two men were draping him across the bearded man's saddle. There wasn't an instant to lose! Staghorn leaped to the transmitter cell where Peccary's material body was seated, his eyes peacefully closed. Staghorn flipped the switch to disengage Peccary's consciousness from Humanac's circuits. Nothing happened. Peccary's body remained as before, blissfully asleep. Good lord, of course nothing happened! How could it? Peccary had just been knocked cold; at the moment he didn't _have_ any consciousness! Staghorn opened the circuit again and whirled back to the control console. He looked at the screen. All three men were mounted again. The bearded leader gestured them on. They set spurs to their horses and galloped away, taking the unconscious Peccary with them. "No!" Staghorn shouted at the fleeing images. "No, Dr. Peccary! Stay in focus!" The horsemen paid no heed--nor did Staghorn expect them to, rationally. His shouts were only involuntary expressions of despair. Grasping the geographic locator, he twiddled it wildly, managing to keep the three riders in focus for several blocks as they sped down a street of the deserted town. Then they rounded a corner and he lost them. By the time he got a focus on the area around the corner they were gone. For several minutes he continued to search, shifting the focal point all over town, but in vain. Dr. Clarence Peccary was lost inside Humanac's labyrinthean brain! Staghorn was stunned. There would be no difficulty in keeping Peccary's physical body alive indefinitely by intravenous feeding, but it was as good as dead while separated from its sense of identity. Worse yet were the probable consequences to Humanac of having a free soul loose in its mathematical universe. These were too dire to contemplate. The machine's reliability might be altogether ruined and Staghorn's life work destroyed. Under the circumstances there was but one course of action. He had to find Dr. Peccary and get him back into focus, so that he could be disengaged from the computer.