Toffee looked at them curiously; she couldn't imagine why anyone should want to cut the wires to their own telephone. Then it occurred to her that perhaps it was their way of shutting off the service. Obviously they were packing up to leave on a trip. "Well," Toffee said. "I wonder if you'd mind running me into town? I have to see the police." The shattered burglars started violently. "You see!" Benny cried. "You see! It's a trap! She's gonna turn us over to the police." "Turn you over to the police?" Toffee said, thoroughly confused. "What on earth for? You've been very nice to me. Your private lives are your own business as far as I'm concerned. It's very urgent that I get to the police immediately. Won't you help me?" For a moment the two thugs just stood and stared at each other. Then Benny heaved a great sigh. "Come on," he said. "Let's take her in, Dippy. Let's give ourselves up. After tonight I ain't never goin' to feel the same about the racket no more." "Yeah," Dippy said. "Me neither. Come on, lady. We got a car down the road." As they turned to leave, Toffee crossed the room to join them. "Aren't you taking anything with you?" she asked. The two erstwhile thieves stopped and turned to her with expressions of overwhelming grief. "Lay off, lady," Benny said with sad solemnity. "You just ruined our whole careers. Ain't you never satisfied?" * * * * * Meanwhile, back at the old house, the Blemishes and George, after a fruitless search for Toffee, had returned to Marc's chair. The Blemishes had fallen into a mood of dark contemplation, while George had returned to his scaffolding and his day dreams. Then suddenly Cecil broke the stillness with a snap of his fingers. "I'll bet I know!" the little man said. "Hey, George!" George roused himself. "Yeah?" he said. "You say you hit Mr. Pillsworth and the girl disappeared? Just vanished?" "Uh-huh," George nodded. "So help me, that's what happened." "Then that's it!" Cecil cried. "I've read about it, but this is the first time I've seen it!" "What's that?" Gerald asked. "The girl is a thought creation! She isn't real!" He turned to Marc. "That's true, isn't it, Pillsworth?" "I don't know what you're talking about," Marc said. Cecil turned to Gerald. "With him awake, she's probably running around somewhere, looking for the police. We've got to do something to bring her back." He thought for a moment. "Do you remember where we put those hypodermics?" "I'm not certain," Gerald said vaguely. "Then run along and look for them. Hurry before she goes too far." As Gerald hurried away, Cecil turned back to Marc with a slow smile. "This is going to work out just fine," he said. "We'll give both you and the girl a nice long sleep. I doubt she's had time to do any harm yet." * * * * * It was only a few minutes later that Benny pulled the car to a stop in front of the police station.