That surprised Helen almost as much as his darting out of the closet and she was even more surprised when he said, his voice low, so that Grundy in the next room would not hear him, "Helen ... I...." But then his voice vanished and he was unable to go on with the speech he had prepared. One eyebrow raised so high that it almost succeeded in touching her hair line, Helen considered him. Then she asked, "Is anything wrong? Do you feel all right?" Then she put her hand on his forehead and said, "Are you feverish?" The speech that should have come tumbling out of his mouth raced through his mind, he thought, "Yes, I am feverish, burning with desire.... Nothing can put out the fire but you...." That is what he thought. What he said, was, "Um.... I guess I _am_ feeling sick. I think I'll go up and lay down for a while." Then tottering off he left her there. Lying down, even with a cool cloth on his head, he found did not suffice to quench the fire that was threatening to consume him. Returning to his reading he found that on occasion, earthmen had murdered the men who stood in the way of their desire. Then it was that he began to trail Grundy instead of Helen. He'd stand in a doorway, while Grundy innocently read, and think of ways to kill his friend. Poison, he found in his reading, was one of the commoner ways of removing the other lover. That would have been fine and he'd have been glad to poison Grundy but for the small fact that he didn't have the vaguest idea what poison was. And, what if he killed Grundy and even then Helen didn't fall in love with him? That was a big factor and one that succeeded in baffling him for quite a while. Perhaps, he decided finally, he'd better make sure she at least liked him before he went to the slightly extreme extent of murdering his friend. But before he could take matters of any kind in hand, there came an interruption in the even tenor of their ways. Precisely a month after they entered Bowdler's house, the door opened and Bowdler came through the entrance, a broad smile of inquiry on his heavy face. He asked no questions about how they were making out, he told them nothing about what he had been doing. Instead he asked, "Has she arrived yet?" "She?" The word was chorused by the trio. "Yes," Bowdler said, his expression changing and worry showing on it. "She should have been here by now if she escaped from the R.A.'s." Shaking his head, he sat down in one of the big comfortable chairs that were scattered all around the library. "She's the best possibility I've found since you three. Courageous, with a real brain in her head. I hope she's not been captured." * * * * * Grundy, Comstock and Helen stifled the questions which were crowding to their lips, questions about the house, about the books, about the reason for their having been sequestered so long. In the face of Bowdler's worry, their questions seemed picayune. "When should she have arrived?" Comstock asked.