ars to have fainted!"

Menesee glanced around, saw Cornelius' attendant behind the box, then
Cornelius himself, slumped forward, face down and motionless,
sprawling half across his table. "Let him lie there and keep quiet,
fool!" Menesee ordered the man sharply. He returned his attention to
the center of the hall as Spokesman Dorn announced in a voice which
held more of an edge than was normal but had lost none of its strength
and steadiness, "Before any moves are suggested, I shall tell you what
has been done.

"The Tribunal Hall has been sealed and further events in it will be
monitored from without. No one will be able to leave until the matter
with which we are now concerned here has been settled to the
satisfaction of the Machine.

"Next, any of you who believe that an instrument failure was involved
in the experience we shared can disabuse themselves. The same effect
was reported immediately from two other auditoriums on the Great
Circuit, and it is quite possible that it was repeated in all of
them."

Rainbolt, grimacing and massaging his right arm vigorously, nodded.
"It was repeated in all of them, sir!"

The spokesman ignored him, went on. "The Tribunal Hall has, therefore,
been cut out of the Grand Assembly Circuit. How circuit energies could
have been employed to transmit such physical sensations is not clear.
But they will not be used in that manner again."

Menesee felt a flash of admiration. His own thoughts had been turning
in the same direction, but he couldn't have approached Spokesman
Dorn's decisive speed of action.

Dorn turned his attention now to Rainbolt. "What happened," he said,
"apparently was caused by yourself."

Rainbolt nodded. "Yes, sir. It was. It was an application of Oneness.
At present, I'm acting as a focal point of Oneness. Until that
condition is changed, whatever I experience here will be
simultaneously experienced by yourselves."

Menesee thought that the effects of the Machine's discipline became
splendidly apparent at that point. No one stirred in the great hall
though it must have been obvious to every man present that Rainbolt's
words might have doomed them along with himself.

Rainbolt went on, addressing Spokesman Dorn.

"There is only one mistake in your reasoning, sir. The demonstrated
effect of Oneness is not carried by the energies of the Grand Assembly
Circuit, though I made use of those energies in establishing an
initial connection with the other audit