it would go first."

* * * * *

Martha Ryan saw the door close on Dr. Hargrave, then started reading
again. She finished the page and turned it over. The first few words of
the opposite side of the sheet showed the continuity to be difficult.

Thinking she might have turned two sheets by mistake, she turned back
one. It was still wrong. She sighed exasperatedly. She distinctly
remembered that she had been on page twenty-five, so the next page
should be twenty-six. Since it hadn't been, she would have to look for
twenty-six.

She looked through the book, page by page, and it wasn't there. Getting
over her exasperation she made a game of it. Finally she developed to
the stage where she would open the book at random, note the number of
the page, close the book, and then try to find that page she had just
seen.

It was a very peculiar book. She found that, (a) she could find any page
number she wasn't looking for, and (b) any page number she looked for
was not in the book, even though it had been a moment before.

Resting thoughtfully for several minutes on this achievement of
deduction she decided to try another experiment. She counted the number
of sheets of paper in the book and wrote the number down. It was one
hundred twenty-four.

Then she counted them again. There were one hundred eighty-six. She
counted them five more times, making seven times she had counted them.
She got nine different numbers of sheets in the book. She decided she
couldn't get nine different numbers after counting only seven times, and
counted the numbers. There were five. She closed her eyes and counted to
ten rapidly, then counted them again. There were fourteen.

She held out her hands. She had seven fingers on her right hand and
three on her left. She chuckled dryly and thought, "Well, anyway there
are ten altogether." She counted them to be sure, and there were
thirteen.

Pursing her lips stubbornly she held up two fingers and counted them.
There were two. She held them rigid and closed her eyes, counting
rapidly to ten. Opening her eyes she looked cautiously at the upraised
fingers. There were two.

She raised a third finger to join the other two, and there were five
upraised fingers. Not only that, there were seven of them clenched. She
closed her eyes and counted to ten quickly, then opened them. There were
three upraised fingers. She counted the clenched ones and there were
two. Relieved, she c