"The others would have closed their windows like I do, to keep out the noise of the cicadas. It is that time of the year. Well look at that. A jacaranda tree. Just what I need to get me up to that window. I can make it to the ledge from that tree."

The reporter began to climb the tree and had soon gained a height from which he could step down to the window ledge. He stood on the ledge, let go of the jacaranda branch and then gripped the bottom of the window (which was now level with the top half).

Holding the frame for support, he bent his left leg and stepped into the room with his right.

His foot came to rest on Ann's soft bed, and he soon slid into the unoccupied bedroom. He began to search around, relying mainly on the moonlight. When this proved to be unsatisfactory, he would cover most of the torch with his hand, and switch it on. There would be a minimum of light emitted, enough to assist his optical scrutiny without giving his presence away to anyone else. Had Wendell been there alone, would most likely have been found and caught.

"Well aside from the fact that she goes to Northern High School, I have found absolutely nothing," he thought, "and all of her cupboard doors are locked. I'll bet she is wearing the keys as she rollicks around in that spaceship. That means I've uncovered something that she has kept secret from everybody else here too. I think I will get myself out of here before she comes back."

The reporter stepped out of the window and reached for a branch. As he made his way along the branch like a monkey, he thought about the ease with which Ann would probably have made the trip.

"A floating teenager in an orphanage. What a perfect cover for the extraordinairy life she seems to be leading!"

Snap!

"That branch looked alright for my feet, but it turns out to be a dead one. I'd better get down before anyone finds me. Someone might have heard that."

The reporter descended the tree, feeling at least fortunate that he had retained his hold on the upper branch with his hands.

"Otherwise I would be in no condition to run out of here."

The reporter returned to his sleeping bag and waited to see what would become of Ann O’Malley.

"I now know her name too."

The room beside Ann's belonged to Wanda, a girl who had no idea about the secret life of Ann O’Malley. The breaking of the branch had awoken her. She had reached her bedroom window in time to see a man disappearing behind the building.

"He must have been trying to get into my room or Ann's," she thought, "Well I'll bet he ran off scared when that branch broke. I don't think he'll come back to try again now, but I'll tell Ann about this in the morning. She'll be surprised to know that I saw a burglar. Then Ann and I can tell the staff, when the hush between the eights is over. Maybe we will have a policeman waiting to catch him if he comes back tomorrow night. That would be an exciting thing to see!"

Wanda returned to her bed and went back to sleep.

It was a quarter to twelve when the reporter saw Ann walk past his hiding place and return to the orphanage.

"Well somehow I miraculously didn't wake anybody up with my jacaranda tree antics. So I had better see that she gets in undetected, and then get home. If I confront her now, she's got to know that I illegally staked this place out. Why don't I catch her after school tomorrow instead? It will be easy now that I know that she goes to Northern High School. I could not tell this afternoon, because she wasn't wearing her voluntary school uniform."

He watched her cross the oval, and then rolled up his sleeping bag and packed everything back into his bag. He left the balaclava out and put it on his head.

"After the noise I made with that jacaranda tree before, I want to take no chances. If I get seen, I'll be heading for the car anyway. There won't be anyone in that building who's game to chase me down that driveway I'm sure, but the important thing is to leave no chance of being recognized."

*          *          *          *

"I almost wish I had been game enough to watch her doing that flying trick with her open window," he thought as he drove back to his house, "but I had to avoid any more risks and just vacate that site rapidly. Besides, I saw her fly up over the ship, and that was enough for one night."