When he was strangling with his own mirth, the man gasped, "My dear, I would gladly give the answer ... that's what I devoted all my life to searching for ... but the humor of it all is that there is no answer." Then another paroxysm of laughter swept through him. Deep down inside Comstock's brain in the never-never land to which the last philosopher's question had driven him, Comstock was dully aware that his body was being stroked. It felt nice and he made an animal sound deep in his throat. But the action did not serve to revive him any more than Pat's anxious voice which was shouting in his unhearing ears. He never heard her say, "Darling, you _must_ come back! The R.A.'s are coming." Comstock never knew when a squad of R.A.'s surrounded the car, and by means of a frightening array of stun-guns forced Pat to help them carry first the tied-up lunatic and then the unresisting body of the man she loved into the car in which they had driven onto the scene. * * * * * Inside Bowdler's house Grundy, Helen and the owner of the robot house sighed as midnight came and went. Bowdler voiced all their feelings when he said, "I am afraid we must give them up for lost. We have waited through three periods. There has been no sign of them. None at all." While he was saying this, the R.A.'s were driving away with Comstock, Pat and the Picaroon. "Then we can wait no longer?" Helen asked. Shaking his head, Bowdler said, "No." Grundy rose to his feet as he murmured, "I'm glad. This waiting has been worse than anything that the Board of Fathers can mete out to us." Helen and Grundy paused at the door of the house and looked back regretfully, Grundy spoke, "It's been a wonderful month we had, we can remember that, darling." She kissed him and they walked out into the darkness with Bowdler close behind them. He said, "I shall be with you, and you can depend on my helping in any way that I can." "To face the Board of Fathers!" Grundy's face was set. "I'll tell them a few home truths no matter what they finally decide to do to us." "You're so brave, sweetheart," Helen said. And looked at him admiringly. "But it's still The Grandfather whom I fear the most." Grundy was honest enough to add. Bowdler laid his heavy hands on each of them and said, "Courage." Then they started on the way to their fates. * * * * * In the R.A.'s car, Pat sat between the lump of unresisting flesh that Comstock had become and the cocoonlike figure of the philosopher. The man who was a criminal in spite of himself observed the way Pat looked down at Comstock and his harshly handsome face softened. "My dear, perhaps it is better that he be the way he is, if what you have told me is true and you are both rebels against the bonds that chain all of us on this sorry world of ours. I fear what the Board of Fathers or The Grandfather may decide may be much worse than this condition that my question has caused."