t. Deep instincts of life-preservation urged Lee
to jump up, to rush those medics, to make some desperate attempt to get
away. But as the rays now penetrated through the skin, they tied his
muscles, although consciousness remained. There was a ghoulish quality
in this, like being sucked into this apparatus, like having the very
essence of one's life drained out by it. The only lights Lee saw, the
glow of electronic tubes filtering through perforations in the walls of
the machines, they seemed like evil eyes staring at him and the smooth
lying voices from behind his head seemed as of mocking ghosts:

"Relax, Dr. Lee, relax. Let your mind wander at will. Think as the
spirit moves you to think. Remember, this is a routine checkup, nothing
but routine. Nothing to disturb you this time; we don't have to start
you upon any specific trend of thought. You know The Brain by now and
how it works; image-formation will start in a few moments. You have
similar equipment in your own Apperception Center we understand. How
does it work with that species you have discovered, 'Ant-termes
Pacificus'? It's marvelous what these sensory rays can do; one would
think that The Brain is really much more than a machine. The way it acts
it seems alive, a towering intelligence, a superhuman personality with a
will of its own. Don't you think so, Dr. Lee?"

* * * * *

He didn't answer, preoccupied with the weird sensation inside his body:
the diaphragm's birdwing flutterings, the ghostly fingers playing a
pizzicato on his arteries' strings closer and closer to the heart. "Why
answer?" he thought. "Why say anything? Whatever they said was part of
the trap they were building and whatever he said they would make a part
of that trap. Why did they have to go through all of this professional
subtlety?"

The voices sounded lower now and farther away: "Go easy on the
rheostats, Mellish. I think trance has already set in."

"Yes; I remember his chart, he rates a high sensitivity, the rays work
fast on types like that."

At the footend the screen was gradually lighting up. Like an aurora
borealis the pale lights shot up in flashes, in quivering arcs, in
undulating waves. Their dance kept step with the vibrations which surged
up from Lee's chest into his brain and started racing through his
consciousness around and around, forming a vortex which swept up his
thoughts like wilted leaves. Fear froze his blood; the deadly fear