The little party on the beach stood silent and motionless until the skimmer was quite out of sight, even to the keen eyes of the hounds. Then Janus whined, pushing at the left hand of Jumping Jack Flash with her muzzle. When the chimp did not respond at once she did it again, more urgently.
He looked down at her with knowing brown eyes. After a few more seconds of waiting to make sure that the skimmer was far away, he led the hounds back across the sand, around the curving stone path and into the house.
They entered the main level, where the food and water dispensers were found; but they did not remain there. Jumping Jack Flash descended, until he was in the basement lab far below the surface.
Janus stepped forward at once into one of the specially constructed form-change tanks. She lay down there. Siegfried moved into another one next to her. Carefully and patiently, like someone who had done it many times before, Jumping Jack Flash made the connections for each of them. Both the dogs were quivering with eagerness when he at last closed the openings of both tanks.
The chimp grunted his criticism of their impatience. If he had to wait, so should they.
Finally they were ready and it was his turn. Jumping Jack Flash climbed into his own tank, carefully made all the necessary attachments and tank inter-connections, and slid the door closed.
There was a brief hum of drawn power. The dials and control panels on the outside of the form-change tanks came to life, then settled into stable readings. The lab became still and silent.
A visitor, walking in, would have judged it dark and empty. Three floors above, night was falling on Wolf Island.
In the basement lab it was close to dawn.