Aside from Pat, he would be only too grateful if the whole benighted affair had never been and he could once more awaken in bed with his mother near to comfort him.
The door on the far side of the room opened and an R.A. entered. Comstock was sunk too far down in a welter of self-pity to do more than raise his head tiredly and look at the R.A.'s stern face. The uniformed man produced a stun-gun and said, "You are under arrest."
Before Comstock could bother to tell the man that he was a little behind in his knowledge of what had been happening, the gun did its work.
Stunned, Comstock fell off the bench and crashed onto the floor. His head landed so hard that the result was instant unconsciousness. The effect of the gun's energy bolt would merely have been to immobilize his bodily functions. But the blow knocked him out.
When he opened his eyes and was again aware of life and its processes, he had been moved. He did not know it immediately but he had been transferred to The Grandfather's aerie.
The first thing that Comstock was aware of was the fact that he was seated in a chair unlike any he had ever seen before. It was big, and comfortable in a way, except that from the arms of it came metal bands that encompassed his forearms preventing the slightest movement. Around his legs, similar bands held his calves against the legs of the chair.
Directly in front of him was the most tremendous desk he had ever seen. Around the walls of the room which was completely circular were little holes, just big enough for the muzzles of stun-guns to project through. The port holes were no more than ten inches apart so that every inch of his body was being menaced at all times.
As intelligence returned to him, he looked dully at the too tall figure of The Grandfather who sat behind the desk. The long beard curved gracefully down the giant chest. More tired than he had ever been in his life, Comstock thought in woolly fashion of how nice it would be to curl up in The Grandfather's lap, as he had been taught by his mother, and forget all his cares.
Thinking of The Grandfather's lap made him remember, with a guilty start, that he had no idea of what had happened to Pat.