accept that without reasoning it out. So who called up
the spider?"

"You did."

"_I_ did?"

In a startling imitation of the Captain's voice, Paresi quoted, "Don't
sit there like Miss Muffet!"

"I'll be damned," said Anderson. "Maybe we'd all be better off saying
nothing."

Paresi said bitterly, "You think it makes any difference if we _say_
what we think?"

"Perhaps...."

"Nup," said Paresi positively. "Look at the way this thing works. First
it traps us, and then it shows us a growing darkness. Very basic. Then
it starts picking on us, one by one. Johnny gets machines that don't
work, when with his whole soul he worships machines that do. Ives gets a
large charge of claustrophobia from the black stuff over there and goes
into a flat spin."

"He came out of it."

"Johnny woke up too. In another subjective time-track. Quite harmless
to--to Them. So they left him alone. But they lowered the boom on Ives
when he showed any resilience. It's breaking point they're after,
Captain. Nothing less."

"Hoskins?"

"I guess so," said Paresi tiredly. "Like Johnny he escaped from a
problem he couldn't handle to one he could. Only instead of regressing
he's turned to chess. I hope Johnny doesn't bounce back for awhile, yet.
He's too--Captain! He's gone!"

They turned and stared at Johnny's bunk. Or--where the bunk had been
before the black wall had swelled inwards and covered it.

V

"_... and there I was, Doctor, in the lobby of the hotel at
noon, stark naked!_"

"_Do you have these dreams often?_"

"_I'm afraid so, Doctor. Am I--all right? I mean_ ..."

"_Let me ask you this question: Do you believe that these
experiences are real?_"

"_Of course not!_"

"_Then, Madam, you are, by definition, sane; for insanity, in
the final analysis, is the inability to distinguish the real
from the unreal._"

Paresi and the Captain ran aft together, and together they stopped four
paces away from the bulging blackness.

"_Johnny!_" The Captain's voice cracked with the agonized effort of his
cry. He stepped to the black wall, pounded it with the heel of his hand.

"He won't hear you," said Paresi bleakly. "Come back, Captain. Come
back."

"Why him? Why Johnny? They've done everything they could to Johnny; you
said so yourself!"

"Come back," Paresi said again, soothing. Then he spoke briskly: "Can't
you see they're not doing anything to him? The