Martha held up her hand for silence, and Charles imagined in the dark that he could see the strained and eerie look of her face. After a pause she whispered: "He's using the--what do you call it? You talk and somebody hears you far away? A prowler he says to them. A wild man from the woods. The bitches bastard must have seen you in your handsome suit of skin and dirt, Charles. Oh, we're _for_ it! May my toe that stumbled grow the size of a boulder! May my cursed eyes that didn't see the step fall out!" They huddled down in the darkness and Charles took Lee Falcaro's hand reassuringly. It was cold. A moment later his other hand was taken, with grim possessiveness, by the child. Martha whispered: "The fat little man. The man who kills, Charles." He nodded. He thought he had recognized Grinnel from her picture. "And ten men waking up. Charles, do you remember the way to the wharf?" "Sure," he said. "But we're net going to get separated." "They're mean, mad men," she said. "Bloody-minded. And the little man is the worst." They heard the stomping feet and a babble of voices, and Commander Grinnel's clear, fat-man's tenor: "Keep it quiet, men. He may still be in the area." The feet thundered over their heads on the porch. In the barest of whispers Martha said: "The man that slept tells them there was only one, and he didn't see what he was like except for the bare skin and the long hair. And the fat man says they'll find him and--and--and says they'll find him." Her hand clutched Charles' desperately and then dropped it as the feet thudded overhead again. Grinnel was saying: "Half of you head up the street and half down. Check the alleys, check open window--hell, I don't have to tell you. If we don't find the bastard on the first run we'll have to wake up the whole Guard Battalion and patrol the whole base with them all the goddam night, so keep your eyes open. Take off." "Remember the way to the wharf, Charles," Martha said. "Good-bye lady. Take care of him. Take good care of him." She wrenched her hand away and darted out from under the porch. Lee muttered some agonized monosyllable. Charles started out after the child instinctively and then collapsed weakly back onto the dirt. They heard the rest. "Hey, you--it's him, by God! Get him! Get him!" "Here he is, down here! Head him off!" "Over there!" Grinnel yelled. "Head him off! Head him--good work!" "For God's sake. It's a girl." "Those goddam yeomen and their goddam prowlers." Grinnel: "Where are you from, kid?" "That's no kid from the base, commander. Look at her!" "I just was, sarge. Looks good to me, don't it to you?" Grinnel, tolerant, fatherly, amused: "Now, men, have your fun but keep it quiet." "Don't be afraid, kid--" There was an animal howl from Martha's throat that made Lee Falcaro shake hysterically and Charles grind his fingernails into his palms. Grinnel: "Sergeant, you'd better tie your shirt around her head and take her into the O.N.I. building."