twenty-five steps and he left the others behind. All except
the bearded man. He neither paused nor looked back.

Johnson's stomach had drawn up into a tight knot now, and his head was
beginning to feel light. There was a faint ringing in his ears.

By the time he reached the end of the guide rope, nausea was creeping
up from his stomach and into his throat. This was as far as it was
supposed to be safe to go; the advertising literature had it that here
was the point of no return. Up ahead his quarry was walking half
doubled over, weaving back and forth, as though he were intoxicated.
But he did not pause.

Johnson turned to look back, and felt his breakfast fighting to come
up. From his perspective, the ground and the spectators watching him
had swung to a position almost perpendicular to him. He felt that he
was about to slide off into space. A wave of vertigo swept over him,
his legs folded and he fell to the ground--sicker than he had ever
been before in his life. Now he knew why the man ahead never looked
back.

For a moment Johnson wondered whether he should give up. But, even as
he debated, tenacity pulled him to his feet and forced him on.

And now something new was added to his vast discomfort. Tiny twinges
of pain, like small electric shocks, began shooting up his legs,
increasing in intensity with each step he took. The pain built up
until the rusty taste of blood in his mouth told him that he had
bitten into the flesh of his lower lip.

Johnson's only consolation now was the thought that the man ahead of
him must be suffering worse than he. At each step the pain increased
its tempo, and the sound within his head grew to a battering roar.
Although he felt himself at the last frayed ends of his vitality, he
managed to stagger on.

Abruptly he realized that he had very nearly overtaken the man ahead.
Through eyes glazed with pain, he saw the other, still standing, but
swaying with agony and sickness. The man seemed to be gathering his
resources for some supreme effort.

He tottered ahead two more steps, threw himself forward--and
disappeared!

If he paused now, Johnson knew he would never be able to move again.
Only will power and momentum carried him on. He stumbled and pitched
forward. A searing pain traced a path through his head and he felt
himself falling.

* * * * *

He was certain that he had never lost consciousness. The ground came
up to meet him, and, with