a minute or two passed. the big plate grew increasingly indistinct, all details lost in a muddy wash of orange-brown shades. green intruded suddenly; then mcallen muttered, "picking up the cabin now."

there was a moment of silence, then fredericks cleared his throat. "so far so good, oliver. we're looking into the cabin. can't see your man yet—but someone's living here. eh, simms?"

"obviously," the psychologist acknowledged. he hesitated. "and at a guess it's no maniac. the place is in reasonably good order."

"you say chard isn't in the cabin?" spalding demanded.

fredericks said, "not unless he's deliberately concealing himself. the exit door is open. hm-m-m. well, the place isn't entirely deserted, after all."

"what do you mean?" asked spalding.

"couple of squirrels sitting in the window," simms explained.

"in the window? inside the cabin?"

"yes," said fredericks. "either they strayed in while he was gone, or he's keeping them as pets. now, should we start looking around outside for chard?"

"no," spalding decided. "the base is too big to attempt to cover at pin-point focus. if he's living in the cabin and has simply gone out, he'll return within a few hours at the most. we'll wait and see what we can deduce from the way he behaves when he shows up." he turned to mcallen. "ollie," he said, "i think you might allow yourself to relax just a little. this doesn't seem at all bad!"

mcallen grunted. "i don't know," he said. "you're overlooking one thing."

"what's that?"

"i told chard when to expect us. unless he's smashed the clock, he knows we're due today. if nothing's wrong—wouldn't he be waiting in the cabin for us?"

spalding hesitated. "that is a point. he seems to be hiding out. may have prepared an ambush, for that matter. john—"

"yes?" fredericks said.

"step the tubescope down as fine as it will go, and scan that cabin as if you were vacuuming it. there may be some indication—"

"he's already doing that," simms interrupted.

there was silence again for almost two minutes. forefinger and thumb of fredericks' right hand moved with infinite care on a set of dials on the side of the scanner; otherwise neither he nor simms stirred.

"oh-hoo-hoo-haw!" dr. john fredericks cried suddenly. "oh-hoo-hoo-haw! a message, ollie! your mr. chard has left you a ... hoo-hoo ... message."

for a moment mcallen couldn't see clearly through the scanner. fredericks was still laughing; simms was saying in a rapid voice, "it's quite all right, doctor! quite all right. your man's sane, quite sane. in fact you've made, one might guess, a one hundred per cent convert to the mcallen approach to life. can't you see it?"

"no," gasped mcallen. he had a vague impression of the top of the desk in the main room of the cabin, of something white—a white card—taped to it, of blurred printing on the card. "nothing's getting that boy unduly excited any more," simms' voice went on beside him. "not even the prospect of seeing visitors from earth for the first time in five years. but he's letting you know it's perfectly all right to make yourself at home in his cabin until he gets back. here, let me—"

he reached past mcallen, adjusted the scanner. the printing on the card swam suddenly into focus before mcallen's eyes.

the message was terse, self-explanatory, to the point:

gone fishing,

regards,

b. chard.