fficials sat. He was
killed by Chichester, who was at the moment animated by Satan's soul. He
was killed, by the way, by a _speeding-up_ of time. The rest were
retarded and suffered nothing but nerve shock. Wilson was killed when
the speed of his time-stream was multiplied by a million: you can stop a
heart without injuring it, but you can't suddenly accelerate a heart, or
any other machine, a million times, without bursting it. That's why his
heart looked as though it had blown up in his chest."

Keane stopped. The bitter look grew in his eyes.

"This failure was wholly my own fault," he said in a low tone. "I knew
when I found the duplicate financial statement in Madame Sin's rooms
that it was a trap to draw me to Chichester's home. Doctor Satan would
never have been so careless as to leave a thing like that behind
inadvertently. Knowing it was a trap, I entered it, and found Satan's
soulless body. If I'd destroyed it immediately.... But I didn't dream
that Madame Sin would follow me so quickly."

* * * * *

Beatrice's hand touched Keane's fleetingly. He was looking at the
geometric figure and did not see the look in her eyes.

"The world can thank heaven you're alive," she said softly. "With you
dead, Doctor Satan could rule the earth----"

There was a knock at the door. Gest was in the hall.

"Keane," he said. "I suppose this will sound like a small thing after
all you've done. You've saved us from bankruptcy and saved Lord knows
how many people from a living death from that time-business you tried to
explain to us. Now there's one more thing. Workmen in Chichester's home
tell us that they can't build up one of the walls of the library, which
is non-existent for some reason. There the room is, with one wall out,
and it can't be blocked up! Do you suppose you----"

Keane nodded, with a little of his bitterness relieved by a smile.

"I remember. The time-diverter was pointed at that wall for an instant
as the girl and I struggled. Evidently it was set for maximum
acceleration, to burst my heart as it did Wilson's. It got the library
wall, which is gone because in the point of the future which it almost
instantly reached, there is no library or home or anything else on that
spot. I'll bring it back to the present, and to existence again, so you
won't have a physical impossibility to try to explain to nervous guests
of Blue Bay Resort."

"And after that," he added to himself, "I