trying to memorize the word--"

"Don't!" cried Brennan in a pleading scream.

"You mean he's going to throw a fit every time he hears the word--"

"No! No! Can't anybody talk without saying--Ouwwouooo!"

"Interesting," commented James. "It seems to start as soon as the
fore-reading part of his mind predicts that the word may be next, or
when he thinks about it."

"Do you mean that Brennan is going to be like the guy who could win the
world if he sat on the top of a hill for one hour and did not think of
the word 'Swordfish'? Except that he'll be out of pain so long as he
doesn't think of the word--"

"Thing I'm interested in is that maybe our orator here doesn't know the
definition thoroughly. Tell me, dear 'Uncle' Paul, does the word
'teacher' give--Sorry. I was just experimenting. Wasn't as bad as--"

Gritting his teeth and wincing with pain, Brennan said, "Stop it!
Even the word 'sch-(wince)-ool' hurts like--" He thought for a
moment and then went on with his voice rising to a pitiful
howl of agony at the end: "Even the name 'Miss Adams' gives
me a fleeting headache all over my body, and Miss Adams was
on--ly--my--third--growww--school--Owuuuuoooo--teach--earrrrrrr--Owwww!"

Brennan collapsed in his chair just as Judge Carter came in with his
white mane flying and hot fire in his attitude. "What goes on here?" he
stormed at James.

"I stopped your campaign."

"Now see here, you young--"

Judge Carter stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and calmed himself with
a visible effort to control his rage. "James," he said in a quieter
voice, "Can you repair the damage quickly?"

"Yes--but I won't."

"And why not?"

"Because one of the things my father taught me was the danger of allowing
this machine to fall into the hands of ruthless men with political
ambition."

"And I am a ruthless man with political ambition?"

James nodded. "Under the guise of studying me and my machine," he said,
"you've been using it to train speakers, and to educate ward-heelers.
You've been building a political machine by buying delegates. Not with
money, of course, because that is illegal. With knowledge, and because
knowledge, education, and information are intangibles and no legality
has been established, and this is all very legal."

Judge Carter smiled distantly. "It is bad to elevate the mind of the
average ward-heeler? To provide the smalltime politician with a fine
grasp of the National Problem and how his little loca