It wasn't deliberate. It couldn't have been, because the Professor
didn't know about Klarloth's warning to Mitkey about carelessness with
electricity--"Der new molecular rearrangement of your brain center--it
iss unstable, und--"
And the Professor was still back in the lighted room when Mitkey ran
into the room where Minnie was in her barless cage. She was asleep, and
the sight of her--Memory of his earlier days came back like a flash and
suddenly Mitkey knew how lonesome he had been.
"Minnie!" he called, forgetting that she could not understand.
And stepped up on the board where she lay. "Squeak!" The mild
electrical current between the two strips of tinfoil got him.
There was silence for a while.
Then: "Mitkey," called the Herr Professor. "Come on back und ve vill
discuss this--"
He stepped through the doorway and saw them, there in the gray light of
dawn, two small gray mice cuddled happily together. He couldn't tell
which was which, because Mitkey's teeth had torn off the red and yellow
garments which had suddenly been strange, confining and obnoxious
things.
"Vot on earth?" asked Professor Oberburger. Then he remembered the
current, and guessed.
"Mitkey! Can you no longer talk? Iss der--"
Silence.
Then the Professor smiled. "Mitkey," he said, "my little star-mouse. I
think you are more happier now."
[Illustration: "GOOTBYE, MITKEY"]
He watched them a moment, fondly, then reached down and flipped the
switch that broke the electrical barrier. Of course they didn't know
they were free, but when the Professor picked them up and placed them
carefully on the floor, one ran immediately for the hole in the wall.
The other followed, but turned around and looked back--still a trace of
puzzlement in the little black eyes, a puzzlement that faded.
"Gootbye, Mitkey. You vill be happier this vay. Und there vill always
be cheese."
"Squeak," said the little gray mouse, and it popped into the hole.
"Gootbye--" it might, or might not, have meant.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Note: Section heads for Sections I to IV are missing]