at trigonometry is based on fallacy I'm sure that mathematicians would
use that evidence to revise their entire field."

"But belief is instinctive; as instinctive as thought itself."

"I admit it's a natural way of thinking. It has to be weeded out."

"So you're sure you don't believe in anything," Horace said slyly.

"Such statements are verbal traps," Martin said. "They mean nothing. You
want me to imply that I believe I believe nothing, and therefore I have
at least one belief. But as a matter of fact I've built up a sort of
mental mechanism for discovering beliefs in my thinking and dispelling
them by going to the roots and showing myself why I believed. Belief
springs up in the mind like weeds in a garden. Constant weeding is the
only solution." He glanced at his watch and frowned uneasily. "Eleven
o'clock. We'd better break this up and join the women. We'll have to get
together again soon. By the way, do you and your wife play Canasta? My
wife loves it."

They had been moving toward the door. Now they entered the living room,
to find the two women playing the game.

"Time we were going, dear," Martin said. "And sometime soon make plans
to have Horace and Ethel over for an evening of four-handed Canasta."

At the front door vows of an early reunion were repeated. But they were
never to be fulfilled. On the following Tuesday Horace vanished.

* * * * *

This time there were no actual eye witnesses. The time was somewhere
between seven and seven-ten Tuesday morning; the place; Horace Smith's
bathroom.

Ethel Smith was in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Horace was in the
bathroom. He called out, "Ethel! I've got it!"

"What have you got?"

But even as Ethel called out, she heard the sound of the electric razor
falling to the tile floor, and there was no answer from the bathroom.
Nothing but silence and, as she described it later, a feeling that she
was alone in the house.

At the time, however, she wasn't alarmed. She half expected some
muttered profanity over the dropping of the razor. She didn't wait for
it exactly. Instead, she picked up the spatula and expertly scooped the
eggs onto their two plates and carried them to the breakfast nook. Next
she poured the coffee. Then, placing some bread in the toaster, she
started back to the stove, calling, "Come and get it, Horace!"

At the stove she started to pick up the aluminum dish containing the
bacon. She paused and rep