The awful words fell like a weight upon a scale. I felt blindly for a chair and sat down, all strength gone. “Stop him,” I said, all that I could say. “Stop him.” “It’s too late for that.” She took pity on me. “I think you’re telling me the truth. Gene.” She came over to where I was sitting and looked down at me gently. “I’m sorry I accused you. I should have realized Paul was lying.” “_You_ can stop him.” “I can’t. I’ve tried but I can’t.” Her control was extraordinary. I did not then guess the reason for her calm, her strength. “Then I must try.” I stood up. She backed away at the expression on my face. “You can’t do anything. He won’t see you. He won’t see anyone but me.” “I thought he told Paul he agreed with me, that he didn’t want to ... to countenance all this, that he....” “At first he took your side, if it is really what you yourself feel: then he thought about it and ... this morning he decided to go ahead with Paul’s plan.” I was confused. “Does Paul know?” Iris smiled wanly. “John is reserving for himself the pleasure of doing what he must do without Paul’s assistance.” “Or knowledge?” Iris shrugged. “Paul will find out about it this evening, I suppose. There will be an announcement. John’s secretary is getting it ready now ... one for the public and another for the Establishment.” “When will it happen?” “Tomorrow. I go with him, Gene.” “You? You’re not going to die too?” “I don’t see that it makes much difference what I do when John dies.” “You can’t leave us now. You can’t leave Paul in charge of everything. He’s a dangerous man. Why, if....” “You’ll be able to handle him.” It was perfectly apparent to me that she was no longer interested in me or in the others; not even in the fate of the work we had begun. “It’s finished, if you go too,” I said bleakly. “Together we could control Paul; alone, I’d not last ten days. Iris, let me talk to him.” “I can’t. I won’t.” I contemplated pushing by her and searching the penthouse but there were guards everywhere and I had no wish to be shot myself on such an errand. She guessed my thought and said, quickly “There’s no possible way for you or anyone to get through to him. Sometime tonight or tomorrow he will leave and that’s the end.” “He won’t do it here?” This surprised me. She shook her head. “He wants to go off alone, away from everyone. I’m to be with him until the end; then I’ll send the body back here for burial ... but he’ll leave full instructions.” “You mean I’m never to see either of you again? Just like that, you both go?” “Just like this.” For the first time she displayed some warmth. “I’ve cared for you, Gene,” she said gently. “I even think that of us all you were the one most nearly right in your approach to John. I think you understood him better than he did himself. Try to hold on after we go. Try to keep it away from Paul.”