His movement had automatically taken him under the shower. And now, as he soaped himself and the warm water cascaded down, he wondered if he ought not to talk it all over with Jones of psychology or a good practicing psychiatrist. The mental contortions he'd gone through in the last few days would provide material for a whole treatise! Feeling as sound as he did this morning, it was impossible for him to entertain any ideas of serious mental derangement. No, what had happened was just one of those queer, inexplicable spasms of irrationality that can seize the sanest people, perhaps because they _are_ so sane--a kind of discharge of long-inhibited morbidity. Too bad, though, that he had bothered Tansy with it. Especially when her own nervous system had been in a shaky state. Poor kid, she had been working hard to cheer him up, last night in particular. It ought to have been the other way around. Well, he would make it up to her. He shaved leisurely and with enjoyment. The razor behaved perfectly. As he finished dressing, a doubt struck him. Again he searched his mind, closing his eyes like a man listening for an almost inaudible sound. Nothing. Not the faintest trace. He was whistling as he pushed into the kitchen. * * * * * There was no sign of breakfast. Beside the sink were some unwashed glasses, empty bottles, and an ice tray filled with tepid water. "Tansy," he called. "Tansy!" He walked through the house, with the vague apprehension that she might have passed out before getting to bed. They'd been drinking like fish. He went out to the garage and made sure that the car was still there. Maybe she'd walked to the grocer's to get something for breakfast. Unconsciously he began to hurry as he went back into the house. This time when he looked in the study, he noticed the upset ink bottle, and the scrap of paper just beside it on the edge of the drying black pool. The message had come within an inch of being engulfed. It was a hurried scrawl--twice the pen point had gouged through the paper--and it broke off twice in the middle of a sentence, but it was undeniably in Tansy's handwriting. For a moment it isn't watching me. I didn't realize it would be too strong for me. _Not two weeks not--two days!_ Don't try to follow me. Only chance is to do exactly what I tell you. Take four lengths of four-inch white cord and--