. Paresi walked with great purpose to the
medical chest, took out a small black case and opened it.

Ives cowered down to his knees and began to blubber openly, without
attempting to hide it, without any articulate speech. Paresi approached
him, half-concealing a small metal tube in his hand.

A slight movement on the deck caught Anderson's eye. He was unable to
control a shrill intake of breath as an enormous spider, hairy and
swift, darted across to the couch and sprang. It landed next to Ives'
knee, sprang again. Paresi swung at it and missed, his hand catching
Ives heavily just under the armpit. The spider hit the deck, skidded,
righted itself and, abruptly, was gone. Ives caved in around the impact
point of Paresi's hand and curled up silently on the couch. Anderson ran
to him.

"He'll be all right now," said Paresi. "Forget it."

"Don't tell me he fainted! Not Ives!"

"Of course not." Paresi held up the little cylinder.

"Anesthox! Why did you use that on him?"

Paresi said irritably, "For the reason one usually uses anesthox. To
knock a patient out for a couple of hours without hurting him."

"Suppose you hadn't?"

"How much more of that scuttle-and-slither treatment do you think he
could have taken?"

Anderson looked at the unconscious communications man. "Surely more than
that." He looked up suddenly. "Where the hell _did_ that vermin come
from?"

"Ah. Now you have it. He dislikes mice and spiders. But there was
something special about these. They couldn't be here, and they were. He
felt that it was a deliberate and personal attack. He couldn't have
handled much more of it."

"Where did they come from?" demanded the Captain again.

"_I_ don't know!" snapped Paresi. "Sorry, skipper ... I'm a little
unnerved. I'm not used to seeing a patient's hallucinations. Not that
clearly, at any rate."

"They were Ives' hallucinations?"

"Can you recall what was said just before they appeared?"

"Uh ... something scuttled. A mouse."

"It wasn't a mouse until someone said it was." The doctor turned and
looked searchingly at Hoskins, who still sat quietly over his chess.

"By God, it was Hoskins. Hoskins--what made you say that?"

The engineer did not move nor answer. Paresi shook his head hopelessly.
"Another retreat. It's no use, Captain."

Anderson took a single step toward Hoskins, then obviously changed his
mind. He shrugged and said, "All right. Something scuttled and Hoskins
defined it. Let's