"We'll talk now," he said with maddening calmness. "Three days from now you'll have had time to think. You'll refuse to talk. Just like you let yourself be branded a thief rather than talk before." I reached out and picked up a cup of coffee from the tray. With slow deliberation I poured the black liquid into the empty glass that had held my tomato and grapefruit juice. There was a large plate glass mirror on the wall across the room. I threw the empty cup at it without rising from my chair. The mirror shattered. Dr. Moriss looked back and forth from me to the broken mirror, like a spectator at a tennis match, the same kind of interest portrayed on his face. "Why did you do that?" Paula asked, her eyes flashing fire. "He did it because he likes you, Paula," the doctor's maddeningly unperturbed voice said. "If he didn't like you he would have thrown it at me." He puffed mockingly at his cigar, his eyes squinting through the smoke. "You _are_ expensive to know, January," Paula purred. The sound of her heels on the bare floor near the door jerked my eyes from Dr. Moriss' face. "Don't leave," I said hastily. "Why?" Paula asked, turning, her hand still on the knob. "Because--" her father began. "Shut up!" I snapped. "I'll tell her myself. Because if you do I might kill your father before I walk out of here." Dr. Moriss nodded agreement, puffing contentedly, his features mocking me through the haze. "He's afraid, Paula," he said abruptly. "It's the same fear that made him destroy his research and all the bills for materials and his notes, and let them smirch his name." He lifted on his elbows and leaned toward me. "The same fear that made you an alcoholic bum, January. But I'm going to get under that fear and find out what you discovered." "You think so?" I sneered, my voice sounding reedy to my ears. "Yes," he said. "You see, I've got to. I know everything you know--except what made you afraid." "You think so?" I repeated monotonously. "Yes," he matched my monotony. "Everything except that. I'll prove it to you. I know how you built the synthetic brain. I know how you built the robot body. I even know how you charged the brain. I even know that that Boston Bull Terrier pet you had at your feet while they questioned you, and which followed you out the door when you left, disgraced, _was not a living creature_!" I lifted my hands and looked at them. They were trembling so much their outlines were blurred. "Show him to his room," Dr. Leopold Moriss said suddenly. "Keep a generous supply of grapefruit and tomato juice near him." "You heard what the man said." Paula soothed gently, tugging at the shoulder of my coat. At the door I turned ponderously. Dr. Moriss was sitting there, his eyes on me, puffing at his cigar. Dully I turned away, following Paula into the hall. The door closed.... * * * * *