om side to side. All of a
sudden he felt that he was being derailed. There was an opening in the
plastics wall of the cylinder; a curved metal shield like the blade of a
bulldozer jumped into his path, caught him, slowed down his momentum and
delivered him safely at a door marked "Apperception-Center 24." It
opened and within its frame there stood an angel neatly dressed in the
uniform of a registered nurse.

"_There_," said the angel, "at _last_. How did you like your little
Odyssey through The Brain, Dr. Lee?"

Lee pushed a hand through the mane of his hair; it felt moist and much
tangled up.

"Thanks," he said. "It was quite an experience. I enjoyed it; Ulysses,
too, probably enjoyed his trip between Scylla and Charybdis--after it
was over! It's Miss Leahy, I presume."

The reception room where he had landed, the long white corridor, the
instruments gleaming in built-in recesses behind crystal glass, the
nurse's uniform; all spelled clinic, a private one rather for the
well-to-do. Since the procedure was routine he might as well submit to
it, Lee thought. He felt the familiar taste of disinfectant as a
thermometer was stuck into his mouth and then the rubber tube around his
arm throbbing with the vigorous pumpings of the efficient Vivian.

"L. F. Mellish, M.D.--I. C. Bondy, M.D." was painted on the frosted
glass door where she led him afterward. The two medics received Lee with
a show of respect mixed with professional cordiality. Both Bondy, the
dark and oriental looking chap, and Mellish, blond and florid, were in
their middle twenties and both wore tweeds which depressed Lee with the
perfection of their cut. Seeing the professional table at the center of
the office, Lee frowned but started to undress; he wanted this thing
done and over with as soon as possible.

"No, no--that won't be necessary, Dr. Lee," they stopped him laughingly,
"We have already a complete medical report on you. Came in this morning
from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Canberra on our request. You're an
old malaria man, Dr. Lee; your first attack occured in '42 during the
Pacific campaign. Pity you refused to return to the States for a
complete cure right then. As it is it's turned recurrent; left you a bit
anemic, liver's slightly affected. But in all other respects you're
sound of limb and wind; we've gone over the report pretty carefully."

"Then why bother with me at all?" Lee said irritably. He had been in
doctors' hands too ofte