considering the fact that he hadn't
eaten anything, or taken time out to rest, or--Herman bewilderedly
felt his jaw. There was only the slightest stubble. He didn't feel
hungry or tired, or cramped from sitting....

"Secundus!" he called.

A door opened in the wall to his right, and Secundus stepped through.
The door disappeared.

"Yes, Dr. Raye? Is anything wrong?"

"How long have I been here?"

Secundus' right-hand head looked embarrassed. "Well, Doctor, without
bringing in the difficult questions of absolute versus relative
duration, and the definition of an arbitrary position--"

"Don't stall. How long have I been here in my own subjective time?"

"Well, I was about to say, without being unnecessarily inclusive, the
question is still very difficult. However, bearing in mind that the
answer is only a rough approximation--about one hundred hours."

Herman rubbed his chin. "I don't like your tampering with me," he said
slowly. "You've speeded me up--is that it? And at the same time
inhibited my fatigue reactions, and God knows what else, so that I
didn't even notice I'd been working longer than I normally could until
just now?"

Secundus looked distressed. "I'm afraid I have made rather a botch of
it, Dr. Raye. I should not have allowed you to notice at all, but it
is growing increasingly difficult to restrain your fellow-creatures to
their ordinary routines. My attention strayed, I am sorry to say." He
glanced at the recumbent form of Primus. "My word! What is Mr. Primus
doing, Dr. Raye?"

"Sleeping," Herman answered curtly.

"Remarkable! I hope he does not make a habit of it. Will he awaken
soon, do you think, Doctor?"

"I have no idea," said Herman helplessly; but at that moment Primus
stirred, opened his eyes, and sat up with his usual vague, kindly
smile.

"Did you dream?" Herman asked him.

Primus blinked slowly. "Yes. Yes, I did," he said in his profoundly
heavy voice.

"Tell me all you can remember about it."

"Well," said Primus, sinking back onto the couch, "I dreamed I was in
a room with a large bed. It had heavy wooden posts and a big bolster.
I wanted to lie down and rest in the bed, but the bolster made me
uncomfortable. It was too dark to see, to rearrange the bed, so I
tried to light a candle, but the matches kept going out...."

Herman took it all down, word for word, with growing excitement and
growing dismay. The dream was too good. It might have come out of Dr.
Freud's origi