"We're doing all we can." Doc sounded tired and a bit bewildered.
"But where could he have gone?" asked Charley. "He doesn't have any money, does he? He can't stay hiding out too long without . . ."
"Coop can get money any time he wants it. He can get anything he wants any time he wants it."
"I see what you mean," said Charley.
"I'll keep in touch," said Doc.
"Is there anything . . . ?"
"Not a thing," said Doc. "Not a thing that anyone can do. We can wait. That's all."
THAT was months ago, and Charley is still waiting. Cooper's still missing and there's no trace of him.
So Charley waits and worries. And the thing he worries about is Cooper's lack of a formal education, his utter lack of certain basic common knowledge.
There is one hope, of course—that Cooper, if and when he decides to act, will make his action retroactive, going back in time to outlaw not electricity itself, but Man's discovery of electricity. For, disrupting and terrible as that might be, it would be better than the other way.