d, Cunnel," Sergeant Williamson raised his head to say.
"Ah's seen men shot wuss'n dis dat was ma'ked 'Duty' inside a month,
suh."

Colonel Hampton nodded. "Well, get him fixed up as best you can, till
the ambulance gets here. And there's whiskey and glasses on that table,
over there. Better give Doctor Vehrner a drink." He looked at T.
Barnwell Powell, still frozen to his chair, aghast at the carnage around
him. "And give Mr. Powell a drink, too. He needs one."

He did, indeed. Colonel Hampton could have used a drink, too; the
library looked like beef-day at an Indian agency. But he was still
Slaughterhouse Hampton, and consequently could not afford to exhibit
queasiness.

It was then, for the first time since the business had started that he
felt the presence of Dearest.

"Oh, Popsy, are you all right?" the voice inside his head was asking.
"It's all over, now; you won't have anything to worry about, any more.
But, oh, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it!"

"My God, Dearest!" He almost spoke aloud. "Did you make her do that?"

"Popsy!" The voice in his mind was grief-stricken. "You.... You're
afraid of me! Never be afraid of Dearest, Popsy! And don't hate me for
this. It was the only thing I could do. If he'd given you that
injection, he could have made you tell him all about us, and then he'd
have been sure you were crazy, and they'd have taken you away. And they
treat people dreadfully at that place of his. You'd have been driven
really crazy before long, and then your mind would have been closed to
me, so that I wouldn't have been able to get through to you, any more.
What I did was the only thing I could do."

"I don't hate you, Dearest," he replied, mentally. "And I don't blame
you. It was a little disconcerting, though, to discover the extent of
your capabilities.... How did you manage it?"

"You remember how I made the Sergeant see an angel, the time you were
down in the snow?" Colonel Hampton nodded. "Well, I made her see ...
things that weren't angels," Dearest continued. "After I'd driven her
almost to distraction, I was able to get into her mind and take control
of her." Colonel Hampton felt a shudder inside of him. "That was
horrible; that woman had a mind like a sewer; I still feel dirty from
it! But I made her get the pistol--I knew where you kept it--and I knew
how to use it, even if she didn't. Remember when we were shooting
muskrats, that time, along the river?"

"Uhuh. I wondered how