r. They are not obscene, except by inference. They
can't be censored. The book would go through the mails. Yet they are
deadly! Look at my heroine in these two pictures. In one she is
like--like violets! In the other she looks capable of any crime! What
is she? A vampire, if there is such a thing? A witch? I can almost
believe in demonology since I made these last drawings!"

Parker, in spite of his excitement, tried to read the face of Dr.
Friedrich von Stein. He found nothing but the automatic smile upon
that mask. Yet it seemed to the artist that this time there was a hint
of real pleasure in the curve of the lips. Was it possible that anyone
could like those drawings? Parker began to think that he was going
insane.

"This is most unfortunate for you," rumbled the doctor. "I understand.
But I trust that the condition can be remedied, if it persists. You,
Mr. Parker, and you, Madame, do you understand something of physics,
of psychology, of metaphysics?"

"I fear that I'm rather ignorant," answered Betty. "Certainly I am in
comparison with a man of your attainments."

* * * * *

Dr. von Stein bowed. He turned his black eyes upon Parker.

"And you, sir? I must adjust my explanation to--what shall I say? To
your knowledge of the higher reaches of scientific thought?"

"Why, I majored in philosophy in college," said Parker, hesitatingly.
"But that's quite a time ago, Herr Doktor. Of course I've tried to
keep up with the conclusions of science. But a writer or a painter
doesn't have any too much opportunity. He has his own problems to
concern him."

"Yes, indeed!" Dr. von Stein was thoughtful. "So, and especially for
the benefit of madame, I shall speak in terms of the concrete."

"Please consider me stupid!" begged Betty. "But I want to understand!"

"Certainly, except that you are not stupid, Madame. I will proceed.
Both of you, I assume, know something of the radio? Very good! You
know that an etheric wave transmits the message, and that it is
received and amplified so that it is within the range of the human
ear. These waves were there when paleolithic man hunted his meat with
a stone-tipped club. To use them it was necessary to invent the
microphone, and a receiving instrument.

"What I have said you already know. But here is what may startle you.
Human thought is an etheric wave of the same essential nature as the
radio wave. They are both electrical currents external to m