hecked on the upraised fingers again--and there were
seven.

She gave up in disgust. Deciding she ought to go home she stood up and
started to cross to the coat tree.

The door to the corridor opened and Ren Gravenard stepped in.

"Hello!" Martha said in surprise. "I thought you were sent to
observation."

"I was," Ren said. "That's where I am now, but when there are forty of
you, you can sort of get lost in the group and wind up anywhere you want
to."

"Well, I'm glad you're here," Martha said dryly. "Maybe you can explain
a few things."

Ren grinned crookedly.

"Suppose I do the explaining over something to eat," he said. "I almost
stopped and had something on the way over here, but I wanted to wait and
eat with you. Do you mind?"

"Of course not," Martha frowned. She was taking a closer look at this
spaceman second class. He had a nice way of smiling at her. His eyes had
depths she hadn't noticed before.

* * * * *

The illogical thought came to her that maybe now that things didn't
behave the way they should, maybe he and his fellow spacemen were the
only ones that knew what it was all about.

"All this," Martha waved her hand vaguely. "It must have been caused by
something about the _Endore_, mustn't it?"

Ren nodded, holding the door open for her. They walked along the
corridor to the revolving doors, his hand tucked protectively under her
arm.

"Is it mental?" Martha asked when they were on the sidewalk.

"No," Ren answered. "But let's wait until we eat. I'm starved to death.
If you run into any trouble I'll help you out. You see, I know how to
work things."

"Like finding page twenty-six in the book I'm reading?" Martha asked.

"That's simple," Ren said. "All you have to do is look for page
twenty-nine and you'll run across page twenty-six right away. Things
like that are mental, partly. I mean, you have to have the right
attitude to get results you want."

"I don't understand," Martha said.

"Well, it's like this," Ren explained. "If you're looking for page
twenty-six it won't be one of the first two pages you look at,
regardless of where you open the book. But after you've looked at three
of them you've passed the page you want unless you're not looking for
it. If you're not looking for it you REACH the right page."

"But why page twenty-nine to find twenty-six?" Martha persisted.

"It has to do with the new arithmetic," Ren said.

"Oh," Martha said d