The green cat leaped out of the black bag and lightly settled itself beside it.
"Stun it!" Billig knifed at Brimstine and Harris.
The green cat twisted its neck and looked up curiously.
Brimstine and Harris looked at Billig and each took a step and peered down over the railing and stopped stock-still. Behind them Dora was as pale and quiet as a ghost.
And then Phil felt it too—the same invisible golden wave of amiability and understanding as had quieted the quarrelers at the Akeleys', but now in a flood, a spring tide.
"Stun that thing down there!" Billig demanded. The hidden wrinkles were showing themselves twitchingly on his face and he was backing away from the railing as if he couldn't bear the golden wave.
Brimstine started to reach inside his coat, but instead picked up the phone beside the blinking light. After a moment he said quite casually, "The raid's begun, just as Greeley told us it would. The FBL are coming in everywhere."
"Stun it, I tell you! Get it somehow; it can save us," Billig ordered, frantically fanning the air in front of his face as if to beat off the golden wave.
Harris just looked at him. Brimstine slowly and puzzledly shook his head.
Billig gave a shuddering gasp and clapped his free hand over his mouth and nostrils, as if the golden wave were something breathed in with the air, and fought his way to the railing. With his other hand he raised the big gun until it was high above his shoulder.