"He was a lovely gentleman," she said coldly. "Ah. Possibly the lake didn't know that." His fifteen minutes were up. He nodded curtly. But just then, Mr. Nodus joined them. Nodus, who dined at the hotel, was summering noisily with his hi-fi apparatus in a cottage far down the lake. Every guest in the place had spent at least one evening there, hearing the most incredible sound effects music can offer. Every guest, that is, except Woodard. He had known for weeks that the man would invite him. He had known with equal certainty that he would decline. How often, feeling himself watched, had he glanced toward the table where Nodus ate with his two silent house guests? Each time he had met the impassive stare of the large baby face, had stared coolly an instant, had looked away. And now Nodus had the effrontery to grasp his arm. "Interested in swimming, Woodard?" he said loudly. "Me too! Swimming and music. _Well!_ You're invited to a concert. Works out tonight's the night I can fit you in. You can follow us in your car--about five minutes?" "Oh but Mr.--Donus, is it?---Nodus? I'm not--not...." Woodard saw Mrs. Jenson's lips curve in a hateful smile. He lost his nerve. Panicking, he fumbled for words. Fumbling, he was lost. "Five minutes," Nodus repeated. Mrs. Jenson sighed spitefully. "Mr. Woodard doesn't know what he has in store!" * * * * * Scarcely glancing to his right at the lake that lay calm in the hazy twilight, Woodard drove behind Nodus and company. Hi-fi indeed! Torturous device of a science-ridden culture--how had he let himself in for the evening ahead? Why had he permitted this trespass upon his privacy? But when, after some eight miles, the convertible ahead slowed and signalled for a left, he checked the impulse to keep going on around the lake and back to the hotel. Nodus would think him crazy. He would think it aloud in the dining room--ostensibly to the deferential genies, the man and woman who were vacationing with him; but he would think it in a voice that carried. Woodard pulled up beside the other car in the fir-fringed clearing. Nodus stood waiting with his two shadows. "Russ will take you to the studio," he said briskly. "The girl and I will be along in a minute." He chuckled, his eyes scanning Woodard's face. "No neighbors _here_ to raise a fuss. No knocking--no kicks or squawks...."