Swart grinned. "You can argue that out while you grow old together," he said. The patrolman who had come out with them picked up a metal ladder beside the invisible wall and leaned it against the rim of the glass. Then, smiling, he walked back and grabbed the collar of Dorothy's coveralls. "We sealed up the chinks to keep 'em from pulling the same trick Gordon did but hadn't we better strip 'em to make sure?"
Norman's fists tightened but he felt the barrel of Swart's pistol dig into his side. Then, on a quick thought, he drew a half-empty pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "Leave her alone, Swart. We haven't anything to escape with. Take these cigarettes for our clothes."
The dark man's hand snatched them greedily. "I don't know why I don't take both." But he stepped away from the ladder and waved his pistol at them. "All right. Get in there. In ten seconds I'm shooting."
Norman followed Dorothy up the rungs of the ladder, climbed around her and—as Swart raised his gun menacingly—hung on the rim of the glass and dropped the twenty feet to the gravel inside their prison. Dorothy climbed over and dropped into his waiting arms.
As the patrolman took the ladder down, Sade and the other red-uniformed gorilla left the house and walked toward them across the field. They came up and halted before the glass, staring in at them and laughing. Dorothy stood beside Norman and he took her hand tightly.
"When they leave we'll start to work," he whispered. "We've got to get you out of here quick."
"Why only me?"
He told her about Keren's hypodermic work. "But first you've got to believe me," he said. "I didn't desert you when I left with Keren. It was our only chance to escape. I was coming back for you. You've got to believe me." He turned and took her shoulders in his hands, looking into her blue eyes.
She bit her lips, staring at him. Then, "I don't want to believe anything else."