"Why not? That double paddle looks as though it might take practice."

"Can I come, too?" came another voice. Bob turned abruptly, and saw the small boy who had accosted him earlier in the day.

Jenny showed no surprise, having seen him approach. She answered the question without consulting Bob by voice or glance.

"All right, Andre. Ride forward when we get it in the water."

"Can I paddle?"

"Some of the time. Bob needs practice, first."

Dropping her hat on the sand, Jenny lifted the kayak onto her head, refusing with a gesture Bob's offer of help. The child made no such offer, not even bothering to pick up the hat.

Bob kicked off his sneakers and rolled up his trouser legs, retrieved the hat, and handed it to Jenny as she set the kayak down in calf-deep water. She had not bothered to keep slacks or sandals dry; she simply seated herself in the middle of the small craft, nodded Bob to the stern, waited until Andre had splashed past them and settled himself in the bow, and then started to paddle.

Without looking back, she remarked, "You'd better wear something more tomorrow. You probably tan better than I do, but with no hat and that T-shirt your • arms and face will be in pretty bad shape before the day's over. You've been out of the sun for a long time."

"Good point," Bob admitted. There was silence for several minutes while the girl maneuvered the little craft forward and backward, and turned it both ways at varying speeds. Finally she handed the paddle back to Bob.

"It'll be easier from there," she assured him. He found no great difficulty in mastering the little canoe, as his extensive experience with rowboats was not wholly irrelevant-Newton's third law is very, very general. The girl gave an occasional word of advice, but on the whole he had no trouble making the little vessel behave.

"I don't see what Shorty has against this," he said at length. The boy in front spoke without turning his head.

"I told you. He's stupid." Bob managed to contain his amusement.

"You and Jenny must be good friends," Bob suggested.

"I've known Andre most of his life," the girl said. "I used to baby-sit for him and his sisters. We're good friends most of the time."

"He likes your boat, anyway."

"Don't you?"

"Sure. It's fine. It should do for the diving, too, if we have only two people in it."

"If two go down, we'll need a third to handle the boat," Jenny pointed out. Bob grew thoughtful, and was silent for a few seconds.

"Well, we'll try," he said at length. "Anyway, the gear will be a long time coming, I'm afraid."

"You're going to go diving? With suits?" Andre asked excitedly. "I can handle the kayak. Let me be with you!"

"Maybe," Jenny said. "It's Bob's business. You'll have to convince him he wants you. I can tell him how good you are with the kayak, but you'll have to be careful not to spoil anything." Both Bob and the Hunter could tell that some meaning lay under the rather elaborate remark. Both tended to connect it with Malmstrom's charges, of malicious mischief earlier in the day. It was some time before they learned how wrong, and at the same time how right, they were.

"Let Andre paddle now, if he wants," Bob said suddenly. He handed the implement forward to Jenny, who passed it on. "The sun's nearly down. Bring us ashore where we were, unless Jenny wants the boat somewhere else."

The child obeyed silently. The Hunter knew why Bob had given up the paddle; the fatigue had struck again. He was having trouble holding on to the tool, to say nothing of driving the vessel with it. They were half a mile from the beach; the alien hoped, somewhat forlornly, that his companion would get enough rest in the few minutes it would take to get ashore to permit normal operation as far as the doctor's home.

Andre left as soon as they reached the shore, without helping get the canoe out of the water. Jenny did this unassisted; Bob had two reasons for not offering his muscles-she had, after all, refused help before. The walk to the Seevers' was made slowly and in silence; Bob had recovered a little, and hoped the girl wasn't noticing his weakness. At any rate, she made no comment on it.

It was getting dark now, and he needed no excuse to walk the bicycle home instead of riding it up the northwest road.

The early part of the evening, while Daphne was still up, passed without particular incident. The child noticed her brother's fatigue, but he managed to pass it off by saying that he was out of condition and had tried to get around too much of the island. Even the Hunter had no moral objection to this. Daphne was not very sympathetic, and both Bob and the Hunter foresaw some trouble if the drug Seever had mentioned failed to come soon and do some good.

When the child disappeared for the night, Bob made a fairly complete report of the day's doings, not stressing the fatigue attacks. His decision, now crystallized, to bring Jenny onto the working team was approved by both parents-they did not feel strongly either way about the girl herself, but were in favor of anything that promised to speed up the project.

Mrs. Kinnaird asked whether her friend Evelyn Seever might not also be included, and Bob admitted that the doctor had made hints in the same direction. It would be nice, he granted, if the two families were completely involved and free to discuss the problems without the need for finding an excuse to exclude some of the members.

"It's too bad Silly isn't older," he even admitted. "But at least, there's a good excuse for easing her out of the way at night."

"Then you'll let Ben tell Ev?" his mother persisted.

"Well-I guess so." Bob's attitude, almost reflexive after more than seven years, was yielding; but it was putting up a good fight.

"I've sent for a couple of those free-diving outfits," said Bob's father, changing the subject. "We're going to have to improvise something to keep the tanks charged, I expect. We have a compressor for the pneumatic hammers and drills, but its connections and controls will have to be played with a bit."

"You ordered two?" Bob asked as indifferently as he could.

"Of course. You weren't planning to dive alone, I trust." Strictly out of kindness, the Hunter worked on Bob's facial capillaries to forestall the blush which was obviously coming. The younger man changed the subject, he hoped unobtrusively.

"I wonder how long they'll take to get here?"

"Don't hold your breath waiting. Even by air it's a long journey. There's nothing more we can do about it for now. You said something about getting hold of an old mine detector or something of that sort, didn't you?"

"Yes. It could save a lot of time, if the things will work under water."

"I don't think we'd have to send for that," said Arthur Kinnaird happily. "Taro Tavake at the radio station can probably make one, considering his war background in the Solomons. I'm positive he knows how they work, from things he's said. I'll talk to him tomorrow."

Bob was appropriately gratified. "Good," he said brightly. "That seems to set us up for now. When the diving gear comes we'll have to make more detailed plans, but that will be a while."

"One thing," his mother put in. "Once you start work, when do you get all these things done? And who, besides your father, dives with you? You'll both have working hours which won't leave very much time free for this. Have you given any thought to taking Old Toke into the secret and having him assign you the job of finding spaceships? That would simplify a lot of things."

"We've thought of it and talked about it a lot, Mom. For now we've decided against it-only partly because I'm so much against telling anyone. Toke Thorvaldsen and his son both have a lot of influence, since they are PFI, and the Hunter's regulations apply a good deal more stiffly to people like them than they do to us."