Rambeau paid no attention, but continued to speak of the penknife. ‘It does not know which way is down,' he crooned, ‘for nothing is certain any more. Maybe it will fall - maybe not. I think it will. There - it has. Would you like to see me walk on the ceiling?

‘You called me, Mr Jones?' It was Stevens

Waldo cut his audio circuit to Rambeau. ‘Yes. That jump­ing jack, Rambeau. Catch him and bring him to me at once. I want to see him.

‘But Mr Jo-

‘Move!' He cut Stevens off, and renewed the audio to Rambeau

‘-uncertainty. Chaos is King, and Magic is loose in the world!' Rambeau looked vaguely at Waldo, brightened, and added, ‘Good day, Mr Jones. Thank you for calling.

The screen went dead

Waldo waited impatiently. The whole thing had been a hoax, he told himself. Rambeau had played a gigantic practical joke. Waldo disliked practical jokes. He put in another call for Stevens and left it in

When Stevens did call back his hair was mussed and his face was red. ‘We had a bad time of it,' he said

‘Did you get him?

‘Rambeau? Yes, finally.

‘Then bring him up.

‘To Freehold? But that's impossible. You don't understand. He's blown his top; he's crazy. They've taken him away to a hospital.

‘You assume too much,' Waldo said icily. ‘I know he's crazy, but I meant what I said. Arrange it. Provide nurses. Sign affidavits. Use bribery. Bring him to me at once. It is necessary.~ ‘You really mean that?

‘I'm not in the habit of jesting.

‘Something to do with your investigations? He's in no shape to be useful to you, I can tell you that.

‘That,' pronounced Waldo, ‘is for me to decide.

‘Well,' said Stevens doubtfully, ‘I'll try.

‘See that you succeed.

Stevens called back thirty minutes later. ‘I can't bring Rambeau.

‘You clumsy incompetent.

Stevens turned red, but held his temper. ‘Never mind the personalities. He's gone. He never got to the hospital.

‘What?

‘That's the crazy part about it. They took him away in a confining stretcher, laced up like a corset. I saw them fasten him in myself. But when they got there he was gone. And the attendants claim the straps weren't even unbuckled.

Waldo started to say, ‘Preposterous,' thought better of it. Stevens went on

‘But that's not the half of it. I'd sure like to talk to him myself. I've been looking around his lab. You know that set of deKalbs that went nuts -. the ones that were hexed?

‘I know to what you refer.

‘Rambeau's got a second set to do the same thing!' Waldo remained silent for several seconds, then said quietly, ‘Dr Stevens-

‘Yes.

‘I want to thank you for your efforts. And will you please have both sets of receptors, the two sets that are misbehaving, sent to Freehold at once?

There was no doubt about it. Once he had seen them with his own eyes, watched the inexplicable squirming of the an­tennae, applied such tests as suggested themselves to his mind, Waldo was forced to conclude that he was faced with new phenomena, phenomena for which he did not know the rules

If there were rules

For he was honest with himself. If he saw what he thought he saw, then rules were being broken by the new phenomena, rules which he had considered valid, rules to which he had never previously encountered exceptions. He admitted to him­self that the original failures of the deKalbs should have been considered just as overwhelmingly upsetting to physical law as the unique behaviour of these two; the difference lay in that one alien phenomenon was spectacular, the other was not

Quite evidently Dr Rambeau had found it so; he had been informed that the doctor had been increasingly neurotic from the first instance of erratic performance of the deKalb receptors

He regretted the loss of Dr Rambeau. Waldo was more im­pressed by Rambeau crazy than he had ever been by Rambeau sane. Apparently the man had had some modicum of ability after all; he had found out something - more, Waldo admitted, than he himself had been able to find out so far, even though it had driven Rambeau insane

Waldo had no fear that Rambeau's experience, whatever it had been, could unhinge his own reason. His own self-confidence was, perhaps, fully justified. His own mild para­noid tendency was just sufficient to give him defences against an unfriendly world. For him it was healthy, a necessary adjustment to an otherwise intolerable situation, no more pathological than a callous, or an acquired immunity

Otherwise he was probably more able to face disturbing facts with equanimity than ninety-nine per cent of his contem­poraries. He had been born to disaster; he had met it and had overcome it, time and again. The very house which sur­rounded him was testimony to the calm and fearless fashion in which he had defeated a world to which he was not adapted

He exhausted, temporarily, the obvious lines of direct re­search concerning the strangely twisting metal rods. Rambeau was not available for questioning. Very well, there remained one other man who knew more about it than Waldo did. He would seek him out. He called Stevens again

‘Has there been any word of Dr Rambeau?

‘No word, and no sign. I'm beginning to think the poor old fellow is dead.

‘Perhaps. That witch doctor friend of your assistant - was Schneider his name?

‘Gramps Schneider.

‘Yes indeed. Will you please arrange for him to speak with me?

‘By phone, or do you want to see him in person?

‘I would prefer for him to come here, but I understand that he is old and feeble; it may not be feasible for him to leave the ground. If he is knotted up with spacesickness, he will be no use to me.

‘I'll see what can be done.

‘Very good. Please expedite the matter. And, Dr Stevens-

‘Well?

‘If it should prove necessary to use the phone, arrange to have a portable full stereo taken to his home. I want the cir­cumstances to be as favourable as possible.

‘OK.

‘Imagine that,' Stevens added to McLeod when the circuit had been broken. ‘The Great-I-Am's showing consideration for somebody else's convenience

‘The fat boy must be sick,' McLeod decided

‘Seems likely. This chore is more yours than mine, Mac. Come along with me; we'll take a run over into Pennsylvania.

‘How about the plant?

‘Tell Carruthers he's "It". If anything blows, we couldn't help it anyway.

Stevens mugged back later in the day. ‘Mr Jones-

‘Yes, Doctor?

‘What you suggest can't be arranged.

‘You mean that Schneider can't come to Freehold?

‘I mean that and I mean that you can't talk with him on the viewphone.

‘I presume that you mean he is dead.

‘No, I do not. I mean that he will not talk over the view-phone under any circumstances whatsoever, to you or to any­one. He says that he is sorry not to accommodate you, but that he is opposed to everything of that nature - cameras, einécams, television, and so forth. He considers them dangerous. I am afraid he is set in his superstition.

‘As an ambassador, Dr Stevens, you leave much to be desired.

Stevens counted up to ten, then said, ‘I assure you that I have done everything in my power to comply with your wishes. If you are dissatisfied with the quality of my cooperation, I suggest that you speak to Mr Gleason.' He cleared the circuit

‘How would you like to kick him in the teeth?' McLeod said dreamily

‘Mac, you're a mind reader.

Waldo tried again through his own agents, received the same answer. The situation was, to him, almost intolerable; it had been years since he had encountered a man whom he could not buy, bully, nor - in extremity - persuade. Buying had failed; he had realized instinctively that Schneider would be unlikely to be motivated by greed. And how can one bully, or wheedle, a man who cannot be seen to be talked with? It was a dead end - no way out. Forget it