At the curb waiting, was an R.A.'s carriage. The team of astrobats waited patiently in harness, their too-pointed faces and four ears heavy with menace towards anyone who dared to approach them. Staggering to his feet, Comstock felt Grundy's arm go around his shoulders. Grundy half carried, half pushed him into the carriage. "But ... we can't go in this!" Comstock gasped. "You know the penalty for even going near an R.A.'s carriage!" A final push shoved Comstock onto the seat. Grabbing the wicked metal electro-whip, Grundy forced the recalcitrant astrobats into what those crotchety animals considered a gallop. "The first person who sees us will call for help! We're not even dressed like R.A.'s!" Comstock said. Grundy was kind. He said patiently, "Our halos will protect us." * * * * * Looking at Grundy's head, Comstock half expected to see the silvery sheen of the mark of an R.A. But there was no sign of one. "Are you insane? We have no halos. Only the R.A. has them." Whipping the team expertly, Grundy said, and his words were a sigh, "You have much to learn, Comstock. There are no halos except in the eye of the beholder." "What does that mean?" The carriage was racing by the b.....l now and Comstock was amazed to see the madame, who was standing in the doorway, make the sign of reverence and obeisance as they raced by. "The halos don't exist. They're just post-hypnotic suggestion implanted in our minds when we're kids. We're conditioned to see the halos when we see an R.A. We're in an R.A.'s carriage now and so anyone seeing us will see our halos. It's as simple as that. But then, you don't know what hypnotism is, do you?" "No." Comstock said this humbly and at the moment he felt that he knew nothing at all. He turned and looked backwards. Down the street behind them, the R.A., his halo shining brightly, like a good deed in an evil world, was pointing his gun at them. Comstock said, "The R.A. found the door. He's going to shoot us!" Wordlessly, Grundy flicked the whip over the beasts' backs. The carriage swerved and carried them around the corner. Comstock could not tell if the R.A. had fired and missed, or had held his fire, for of course a stun-gun is silent as the grave, and only affects the human nervous system. Careening along the quiet streets Comstock found time to feel deep and real sorrow for Bowdler. It still did not seem possible that anyone could have been as brave as all that. Aloud he said, "Bowdler sacrificed himself for us, didn't he?" Grundy nodded, his eyes alert, scanning the road ahead, for what? Comstock wondered. "When you are daring what we are, you must be prepared for instant sacrifice," Grundy said. "Hadn't we better give up?" Comstock asked. "Two of us against the entire world seems ridiculous. What chances have we?"