Part 12 (2/2)

”And I'm not one hundred percent convinced that you are right.”

”You are here, and if you take a look at what I'll show you, you'll be convinced. We'll put it this way, to start: Something c.o.c.keyed is going on. Now, one more thing I can add, and this is the part that confuses me: Everything that has been done seems to point to me. So far as I can see they are operating just as though they want me to start a big ha.s.sle that will end up by getting the Highways out of their Hiding.”

”Why on earth would they be doing that?” she wanted to know.

”I don't have the foggiest notion. But I do have that feeling and there is evidence pointing that way. They've let me in on things that normally they'd be able to conceal from a highly trained telepath. So I intend to go along with them, because somewhere at the bottom of it all we'll find the answer.”

She nodded agreement.

Now I started up the car, saying, ”I'm going to find us one of the Highways in Hiding, and we'll follow it to one of the way stations. Then you'll see for yourself that there is something definitely fishy going on.”

”This I'd like to see,” she replied quietly. Almost too quietly. I took a dig at her as I turned the car out through a tight corner of the lot onto the road. She was sitting there with a noncommittal expression on her face and I wondered why. She replied to my thought: ”Steve, you must face one thing. Anything you firmly believe will necessarily pa.s.s across your mind as fact. So forgive me if I hold a few small doubts until I have a chance to survey some of the evidence at first hand.”

”Sure,” I told her. ”The first bit won't be hard.”

I drove eagerly across Illinois into Iowa watching for road signs. I knew that once I convinced someone else, it would be easier to convince a third, and a fourth, and a fiftieth until the entire world was out on the warpath. We drove all day, stopping for chow now and then, behaving like a couple out on a vacation tour. We stopped in a small town along about midnight and found a hotel without having come upon any of the hidden highways.

We met at breakfast, talked our ideas over mildly, and took off again.

We crossed into Nebraska about noon and continued to meander until late in the afternoon when we came upon our first giveaway road sign.

”There,” I told her triumphantly.

She nodded. ”I see the sign, Steve. That much I knew. Now all you have to do is to show me the trial-blazes up in that emblem.”

”Unless they've changed their method,” I told her, ”this one leads West, slightly south of.” I stopped the car not many yards from the sign and went over it with my sense of perception. #You'll note the ease with which the emblem could be turned upside down,# I interjected. #Note the similar width of the top and bottom trefoil, so that only a trained and interested observer can tell the difference.#

I drove along until we saw one on the other side of the road and we stopped again, giving the sign a thorough going over. #Note that the signs leading away from the direction are upside down,# I went on. I didn't say a word, I was using every ounce of energy in running my perception over the sign and commenting on its various odds and ends.

#Now,# I finished, #we'll drive along this Highway in Hiding until we come to some intersection or hideout. Then you'll be convinced.#

She was silent.

We took off along that road rather fast and we followed it for miles, pa.s.sing sign after sign with its emblem turned up along the right side of the road and turned upside-down when the sign was on the left.

Eventually we came to a crossing highway, and at that I pointed triumphantly. ”Note the missing spoke!” I said with considerable enthusiasm. ”Now, Miss Farrow, we shall first turn against it for a few miles and then we shall U-turn and come back along the cross highway with it.”

”I'm beginning to be convinced, Steve.”

We turned North against the sign and went forty or fifty miles, just to be sure. The signs were all against us. Eventually I turned into a gas station and filled the carte up to the scuppers. As we turned back South, I asked her, ”Any more comment?”

She shook her head. ”Not yet.”

I nodded. ”If you want, we'll take a jaunt along our original course.”

”By all means.”

”In other words you are more than willing to be convinced?”

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