rship in the Lodge. There was nothing
creepy about the ritual--only about the way I felt.

I guess, if we hadn't gotten hungry, we'd be there yet. Wally had
one last little wrinkle for me as I started down the corridor for
the elevator.

"Pheola," he called.

"Yes, darlin' Billy," she said, coming to his side.

"How's Tex going to make out with that overeducated iceberg he's
hot after?" he asked her. I flinched at the thought of Shari--I
was getting used to considering her a memory.

Pheola looked into the corner for a moment. "Oh, yum!" she said,
smiling and showing the braces on her teeth. She kissed me. I
think I was about as startled as Wally was. "Just so you let her
be the only Cassandra," she said. "And you call that an iceberg?"
She looked at me curiously. "You'd better start eating red meat,
Tex," she told me, and would say no more.

* * * * *

I had a heck of a time getting Shari on the 'phone. An hour
before lunch she caved in and accepted my call.

She looked pale and shaken, even in the black and white of the
screen. "Please," she said. "I've had all I can stand. You stayed
there all night, didn't you?"

"I'm not a PC, Shari," I said.

Nothing else would have caught her ear.

"Not?"

"Proved it before I left," I said. "I can prove it to you, too."

"Ridiculous. You can't prove a negative."

"Well, in a manner of speaking. What I can do is show you how the
card trick was worked."

I had her hooked. "You mean it? It really _was_ a trick after
all?" she said, slumping.

"It sure wasn't PC," I said. "Let me show you."

"At the lab," Shari said. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

A couple graduate students were there, fooling around with Rhine
cards when we arrived, and Shari chased them out without
ceremony. She locked the door behind them. We were to have
privacy. She didn't bother with her lab coat this time.

"Show me," she insisted.

"The apparatus, Shari," I grinned. She gave me a deck of cards,
and pulled out the two of hearts and two of spades.

"We'll do it face-up," I said. "So you can see how it's done!"

I laid the two cards side by side on her blotter, face up. "Now
put a finger on each one." I directed. "And watch them like a
hawk. What card is under your right forefinger?"

"Heart," Shari said.

"Wrong," I told her. "Spade."

They could have heard that shriek clear to Keokuk. Good thing we
were in a sound-proof laboratory.

I got he