had left them eight hours ago. Only there
were no longer any snakes crawling across the floor towards a hole in
the wall. But the hole was still there and he thought that he had better
tidy things up a bit. If nobody had noticed the arrangements for this
new experiment so far; why should anybody be forewarned?

Lee put the lid back on the "Lignin-Filler-Spout." He closed the panel
so the wall looked whole again. He gathered the sticks of cordwood from
the floor and piled them neatly to their stacks again. All this he did
like a child putting its things away after a long day's play; a
grey-haired child, weary, with the sandman in its eyes. He looked around
and found everything done and over with. On the fluorescent screens all
curves The Brain described had dropped to the bottom. Like dead things
they lay flat. On the visi-screens some stay-behinds of the great exodus
were looming large, a hapless little ant-king scurrying about; a few
disabled workers, their blind eyes staring into the face of death. It
would come soon to them; their work on earth was done....

Lee looked at the clock: 10 p.m. He put out the lights and locked the
door behind that yawning emptiness which once had been his lab, which he
would never see again. As he descended in the elevator he felt very
tired.

CHAPTER IX

Incessant shrieks of the phone aroused Lee from the deep well of his
sleep. He didn't know the female voice which fairly jumped at him.

"Is this Dr. Lee? Dr. Semper F. Lee from Canberra; am I at last
connected with Dr. Lee?"

"Lee speaking."

"I've been phoning for you all over The Brain Lee. Have you forgotten
you had an appointment with us? Checking up on your broad aptitude test.
The doctors are waiting. This is Vivian Leahy speaking; don't you
remember me?"

"Yes, of course." The picture of the loquacious angel who had guided him
to the medical center on his first trip flashed back into his mind. "I
know I have an appointment for this afternoon; I'll be there."

"But, Dr. Lee, this _is_ this afternoon; it's four p.m. already. You
aren't ill, Dr. Lee, are you? You sound so strange."

Lee assured her that he wasn't and that he would be over right away.

"It's a miracle they left me undisturbed that long," he thought as he
shaved and dressed. His personal fate would be decided within the next
two hours he knew; it would be the end. But even as the tension mounted
in his consciousness he thought triumphantly. "I'v