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Show Anting Alone Page 2 ?2 Chapter Fifteen She heard the strange nasal mumble out on the sidewalk before its source climbed in. A mighty weight made the bus dip on its springs, and someone huge paused up front by the dashboard. Ignoring the driver's barked exhortation to move to the back, the huge person reached out a trembling, bloody knuckle and rapped appraisingly on the speedometer. She heard the mumble once again. "Pretty nice radio. I bet you can pick up NORAD transmissions on this radio, huh?" The driver sighed, climbed out of his seat, and pushed the professor down the aisle. "Did the satellites track any fiery chariots departing Nebraska in the past few days?" bellowed Dr. Edwine. Everybody stared at him. He had to hunch himself almost double to fit under the metal luggage racks as the driver shoved him along. But, even so, Sister Polycarpana could see that his torso was caved in, sunken inside his dirty shirt. And, though his face was aimed down at the floor, she somehow knew that it was going to look even worse than it had looked the last time she'd seen it. She was familiar with the general trends of this man's life. Something was troubling him again, something deeper than his considerable physical complaints. Polycarpana - and everybody else on the bus, for that matter - could tell at first sight, or rather first hearing, that |