“I am now. I was getting hungry so I sniffed the fruit, it seemed all right. That was when I took one little bite and was very sick for a very long time. So I just stayed there on the island and took it easy until I felt a little better. I was thinking about seeing what was on the bigger islands as soon as I had the strength. There is the ocean of water here, but no food. I was beginning to get a little worried—and that’s when I heard you calling. Now tell me what is happening, what it all means.”

A little worried! Any woman other than my Angelina would be a basket case left alone like this. I kissed her passionately which was very good.

“Things have been very busy since you vanished. The boys helped me, but we couldn’t get the job done alone. So we called in the Special Corps and Inskipp sent in the troops. As well as Professor Coypu and an agent named Sybil Who penetrated another fake church with still another Slakey. He seems to have multipliedhimself over and over again. We had a plan to find the machine he uses but Sybil and I were caught before we even got started. We ended up in a place called Hell. It’s Coypu’s theory that each of these places is in a different universe. Heaven is one, and Hell and this Glass are others. Then we set up a plan and I managed to get into another one of Slakey’s front operations, trying to lay my hands on one of the machines for the Professor to examine. It didn’t quite work Out as plannedwhich is how I ended up here.”

“You have been busy. Now tell me more about this Hell place and your companion, what was her name? Sybil?”

I recognized that tone of voice and told her in greater detail about my visit to Hell. Sybil had only a brief mention and I think that I came out of it pretty well, certainly Hell had not been the time or the place for romance of any kind.

“Good,” she finally said. “And the last time you saw the boys they were enjoying themselves with this female agent. How old is she—about their age, you think?”

There were daggers behind her words and I walked ever so carefully. Yes, would you believe it, exactly the same age as the boys. Mutual interests, nice to see. But it was even nicer to be with her here. Which led to some enthusiastic cuddling and no more talk of Sybil. “Enough,” she said finally, standing and brushing the sand off her clothes. “With James and Bolivar in good health and enjoying themselves, Inskipp in charge of the investigation and Coypu busy inventing his brains out, we have no need to worry about any of them.”

“Correct—we worry about ourselves. Only we don’t worry. One can die of thirst in three days, but we have an ocean full of water so that’s not going to happen.”

“Yes—but you can also die of starvation in a month. And I’m beginning to get hungry.” She pointed out at the larger islands. “There could be food out there. Why don’t we take a look? I have had plenty of time to think about the situation here and I was going to do just that. Did you notice how all the crystal life—forms stay away from the shore?”

I hadn’t but I did now. “I’ll bet you know why.”

“I do. I made a simple experiment. Whatever the living crystals are, they are not glass. They dissolve in water. Not right at first, it takes awhile. Then they get sort of soft and swell up, and eventually melt completely.”

“What happens when it rains?”

“It never does. Look—no clouds.”

“And the water doesn’t bother the other kinds of life here? I saw things swimming around in a rock pool.”

“Some of the green growths extend roots or something into the water. Meaning they are a water—based life—form like we are.

“And might very well be edible,” I said with growing enthusiasm. “While we can’t eat the glass creatures, we might find something we can nosh on the islands.”

“My thinking exactly”

I rubbed my jaw and looked over at the sandy beach on the nearest island, no more than two hundred meters away. Beyond the beach there were green growths of some kind, much bigger than the shrubs that covered the small island that Angelina had explored.

“But we also have to think about leaving Glass,” I said. “We should go back to that spot where I appeared. So Coypu can find us when he gets his machine working.”

“He can only get it working after he invents it and builds it,” she said with great practicality. “I suggest that we leave a message there telling him where we are. Then do a little exploring. If we are going to be here any length of time we are going to need food.”

“My genius,” I said, kissing her enthusiastically. “Rest and save your strength. I’ll trot back and do just that.” While I trotted, then slowed down as the oxygen got me giggling, I considered a vital problem—how was I going to leave a message? By the time I reached the clearing I had the problem solved. My wallet was still in my pocket and was filled with unusable money and valueless credit cards. With my current name on each one.

In the clearing I used my shoes to kick and scrape clear a circle in the sand. In the middle of it I placed the wallet. Then, picking up the pieces of glass, with great delicacy using a fragment of shirttail, I constructed an arrow of colored fragments that pointed back down the path. With other pieces I spelled out the single word ISLANDS.

“Very artistic, Jim,” I said, stepping back to admire my handiwork. “Very artistic indeed. When our rescuers arrive they will figure that out instantly.”

I stepped over my announcement and went back to join Angelina. It was growing dark and she was sound asleep. It was warm and the sand was soft—and it had been a busy day. I sat beside her and must have fallen asleep as well, for the next I knew it was daylight and she was lightly patting my shoulder.

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty badly in need of a shave. Rise and drink your fill from the ocean, then let’s swim over and see if we can find some breakfast.”

“Let me show you something,” I said, removing the cloth bundle from my pocket. “Used my shirttail. Wrapped another piece of shirt around it to make a handle.”

“You are so practical, my darling,” she said, taking up the glass dagger and admiring it, then handing it back. “But won’t it dissolve when you go into the water?”

“Not if I hold it over my head and swim with one arm.”

“My husband, the athlete. Shall we go?” It took her only a few strokes to reach the first, smaller island, where she waited patiently while I thrashed over to join her. When we started across to the other side she stopped and pointed.

“There,” she said, “under that thing that looks like a cross between a sick octopus and a dead cactus. Those are the shrubs I told you about. The ones with the orange fruit. Pure poison.”

“Let’s see if we can find something better on that larger island.

It was a tiring swim for me but I did it without getting a drop of water on the blade. I emerged from the water panting and puffing and looked around.

“There may be other berries or fruits or such that aren’t too obnoxious,” I said. “That looks like a path over there.”

“If there is a path—then something made it. And that something could be dangerous.”

“Remember my trusty knife,” I said, unwrapping it and brandishing it happily.

“In that case you may lead the way”

The path really was a path, trodden flat and turning and twisting through the strange growths. There were analogs of trees, shrubs and bushes, even a green groundcover halfway between grass and moss. But nothing was in any way familiar. Or looked in any way edible. It was Angelina who saw a possibility first.

“There,” she said, parting the fronds of a feathery growth. “Those bluish bumps on the trunk.”

The bumps had a nasty resemblance to blue carbuncles. I bent and prodded one with my fingernail; a thin skin split and blue juice oozed out.

“Possibly edible?” Angelina asked.