Bob sat up with an effort. "How are you going to ask him about the detector without starting him wondering what we want it for?"

"Credit me with basic brains, even if I haven't been to an Ivy League college, or whatever they call those places. Your father must nave told him something; I don't have to know the reason at all. Are you waiting or coming?"

"I'd better come along. Then if I get back in shape before you show up again, I can do something useful."

"You could search out here."

"Don't rub it in." Bob didn't really like having the initiative taken from him, as the Hunter could well see, but he was not so stupid as to show his resentment. "Let's see if I can get to the boat under my own steam. I know I won't be any help getting it into the water."

"No trouble." Jenny also had some basic tact. She made no effort to help Bob to his feet, though it was plain to her that it was a major struggle. Once up, he walked with less difficulty the thirty or forty yards to the boat. The girl didn't wait for him, and had it in the water by the time he arrived. He got in, still without help. Jenny started paddling, heading for the mouth of the creek nearly two miles away.

After a minute or two, Bob made a suggestion which the Hunter was annoyed with himself for not originating.

"Wouldn't it be smarter if you headed for the nearest part of the shore and then followed it along, in water shallow enough so I can get out fast if I have to? If my stomach acts up again, there's no reason I should mess up your boat."

"Cant you lean over the side?"

"Of course, but is it stable enough? I've been very careful about trim."

"Well, you needn't be. It may not be as stable as an outrigger or a cat, but I've gone in and out in deep water often enough. I told you that. If you need convincing-" Jenny set down the double paddle and, without bothering to remove her outer clothes, startled her two passengers by going overside. The kayak rocked, but not nearly as much as Bob expected; his reflexive grasp of the coaming around the cockpit was superfluous.

A moment later the redhead surfaced. She grasped the floating hat and handed it to Bob, then seized the coaming and drew herself back aboard. This time the tip was greater, taking the side of the little vessel under water; but the waves still failed to reach the coaming, and the only water which entered the cockpit dripped from Jenny's clothes. She resumed paddling without comment; her passengers also found nothing to say.

She brought the kayak ashore at the mouth of the creek which passed close to Bob's house, far enough up the little stream to be out of sight except to boats well out on the lagoon. Bob managed to get to his feet and disembark with less trouble than he had experienced three quarters of an hour earlier.

''All right," Jenny said. "It will probably be quickest if I go and borrow your bike-it's still at your house, isn't it? You walked down to the boat this morning? Good-and used that to get to Tavake's phone shack. Do you want to wait here, or get up to the house yourself, or-"

"Hi, Bob! Did you find it?" Daphne's shrill voice cut into Jenny's question, and a moment later the child herself appeared. Bob asked the obvious question.

"What are you doing here, Silly? You don't go swimming alone, especially here away from the beach, and I don't see any of your friends."

"Oh, I saw you coming back long ago in Jenny's boat, and wanted to ask if you'd had any luck. Are you going back out to the little island, or did you find it? If you aren't and still have to look somewhere else, can I go with you? I know Mother won't mind."

Jenny cut in before Bob could answer. "How did you know that Bob was looking for something, Daphne?"

"He said so. That's why Mother said he'd be too busy to have me along."

"Did he tell you what he was looking for?"

"No. It's his secret."

"But still you want to go along? How can you help if you don't know what we're hunting?"

"You're not dressed to go with us," Bob interjected.

"I have my bathing suit on."

"What about the sun, small blonde idiot? We've been looking mostly out on Apu, where there isn't any shade to speak of. That's where you saw us coming from, wasn't it?"

"Then why is Jenny all wet? I can go into the water any time you need, and I don't need sun clothes. I'm tan enough now."

The Hunter was getting impatient. It had been two years since they had been on the island, and even that long ago Bob's sister had been able to hold her own in a verbal duel with anyone but her mother. Bob should have known better than to let this happen; he should simply have said no. Unhuman as he was, the Hunter did have emotions, some of them rather similar to those of his human host. He finally yielded to the impatience.

"Which little finger is she wrapping you around this time?" were the words that resonated in Bob's inner ears. He reacted, as the Hunter should have foreseen, with irritation which was taken out on the unfortunate child rather than on the alien critic.

"Look, Silly, Mother told you last night you couldn't come with us, and you can't. We're busy, it's important for us to find this thing, and I can't be distracted looking after you at the same time."

The response did not quite reach the level of tears, perhaps because of the speed with which Jenny cut in. She may have thought Bob was being too harsh, but it is likely that she also wanted to retain some control of the situation.

"Look, Daphne," she said gently and persuasively, "Bob's right about not having you come in the boat with us but maybe you can help us here on shore. I can't tell you what the thing we're looking for really is, because as you said it's a secret-I don't even know myself. Bob couldn't tell even me." The Hunter was startled and rather dismayed at this outright false-hood. "I can tell you what it looks like, though, the way Bob told me. Then you can keep your eyes open for it and tell us if you ever see it. Remember, though, it's a secret; you must promise not to tell any of your friends."

"Sure. How about Mother and Dad?"

"They know already. You can mention it to them if you like," Bob assured her. The Hunter was not he approved of Bob's tacit acceptance of the falsehood, but refrained from saying anything to his host, as the latter went on with the description of the generator case.

It's like half a silver ball, about so big." He held his slightly cupped hands about eight or nine inches apart. "It's not really shiny like a mirror-more like our kitchen knives. The flat side is partly covered by the same silvery stuff, but you can see it's hollow."

"Oh, I know what you mean," Daphne explained excitedly. "It's mostly grown over with coral, isn't it?" Jenny did not know what to say, Bob for some seconds was unable to speak, and the Hunter was not sure he was hearing correctly.

"It could be," Bob said at last. "You've seen something like that? When were you out on Apu?"

"Never. It isn't there. It's on top of a book case in the library; it's been there for years."