clergymen, a profession which made their lynchings as startling as they
were inexplicable; both had been respected members of their little
communities until the day--the date was less than a week old--their
congregations rose up en masse and tore them limb from limb.

The remaining two of the second group had died in different fashions. A
doctor in a Nevada mining hamlet, making a late call, had been set upon
by the patient's family, knocked unconscious and shot. A Girl Scout
leader in Mississippi had been thrown over a cliff by her young charges.

* * * * *

A morbid and pointless collection of horrors, Alcorn thought, until he
saw the parallel that related them.

The circumstances were strikingly similar in every case except that the
four who disappeared were urbanites, while the murdered ones were all
members of small and comparatively isolated communities. Not one of the
eight had been over thirty-five; each had been well-liked; none was
wealthy, yet all were in comfortable circumstances from vocations that
depended upon good will.

A further similarity built up in Alcorn's subconscious, but died
unconsidered because at that moment the quarterstaff bout on the screen
ended and a brazen-voiced announcer gave the time.

It was 18:30. Dr. Hagen was to call him at his apartment at 19:00.

Alcorn, mulling over the cryptic half-knowledge gained from the
clippings, wondered what the little psychiatrist might make of it. Hagen
was capable in his field; even with so little to work on, he might
possibly come up with the right answer.

Alcorn decided that he could not run from a danger until he knew what
the hazard was. He might as well face the issue squarely now and be done
with it.

The Jaffers operative, on his ninth drink, had relaxed into a smiling
stupor. Alcorn left him snoring in the booth and headed for the public
radophone unit beyond the end of the bar. He could not be in his
apartment to take Dr. Hagen's call, but he could anticipate it.

The telescreen announcer's voice stopped him short. "_Have you seen this
man? Sought by police for the murder earlier this evening of Dr. Bernard
Hagen, prominent psychiatrist, he is thought to be at large somewhere in
downtown...._"

The screen showed an enlarged full-face photograph of Alcorn.

* * * * *

He was responsible for Hagen's death. But who had wanted the knowledge
of Alcorn's gift--or the su