ooping down upon little fumaroles, the ventilator shafts
of caves defeated but still unsurrendered. Big, plump canisters
plummeted from the bellies of the planes. And then the jellied gasoline
ignited, turning those thousands of lives trapped in the deep into one
vast funeral pyre.... For over fifteen years he had tried to forget, to
bury the war, to keep it jailed up in the dungeon of the subconscious.
Now those accursed medics had unleashed the monster of war and as it
stared at him from the screen it had that blood-freezing, that hypnotic
effect which the Greeks once ascribed to the monstrous Gorgon.

Mellish's voice--or was it Bondy's?--seemed to come through a fog and
over a vast distance as it asked: "What seems to be the matter, Lee?
You're sweating, your body shakes; what do you feel?"

"It's those rays," he tried to defend himself. "It's the vibrations--the
fingers. They are gripping the heart; it's like the whole body was
turned into a heart. It's like another life invading mine--it's ghostly.
Stop it, for heaven's sake."

"Not yet, Lee, not yet. Everything's under control, you're reacting
beautifully; you're really feeling fine, Lee, just fine."

"If only I could get at his throat," Lee thought. "I would squeeze the
oil of that voice and never be sorry I did." He tried to stir and found
that it couldn't be done; every muscle seemed tied in a cataleptic
state. Then he heard the other medic speak.

"You were shown this little movie Lee in order to stimulate your mind
into the production of a movie of its own. You have responded, you have
answered the call. While you saw the first, the sensory tactile rays
working in five layers of penetration have recorded and have carried
your every reaction to The Brain. The Brain, in a very real sense has
read your mind and it has retranslated these readings into visual
images. We are now going to watch the shapes of your own thoughts. Here
we go...."

* * * * *

The projector which had stopped for a minute began to purr again. As the
first thought-image jumped upon the screen there was a low moan of
amazement mixed with acute pain. It escaped Lee's mouth, uncontrollably
as the abyss of the subconscious opened and he saw:

A monstrous animal shaped like an octopus crawling across a cotton
field. Nearer and nearer it crept, enormous, threatening; and suddenly
there was a sharp excited bark and a spotted coon dog raced across the
field t