"The name is Sworsky, not Holmes. But sure, I'll do what I can, if you'll promise to try and get rid of this fixation. You ought to see a head-shrinker yourself, you know." _In vino veritas_--sometimes too damn much _veritas_. * * * * * Toward the end of the evening, Judy was talking freely, if not quite coherently. "I cared a lot for Colin," she said. "It was pretty wonderful having him around. He's a grand guy. Only Matt--I don't know. Matt hasn't got half of what Colin has; Matt's a single-track mind. I'm afraid I'm just going to be an ornamental convenience to him. Only if you've ever been so you got all dizzy when someone was around, and thought about him all the time he was away--well, that's how he is. Nothing else matters." "Colin's gotten a funny obsession," said Sworsky cautiously. "He thinks Kennedy hypnotized you for Snyder. I keep telling him it's impossible, but he can't get over the idea." "Oh, no, no, no," she said with too much fervor. "It's nothing like that. I'll tell you just what happened. We had those two measuring sessions; it was kind of dull but nothing else. And then the third time Kennedy did put me under hypnosis--he called it that, at least. I went to sleep and woke up about an hour later and he sent me home. I felt all good inside, happy, and shlo--slowly I began to see what Matt meant to me. "I called him up that evening. He said Kennedy's machine _did_ speed up people's minds for a short while, sometimes, so they decided quick-like what they'd've worked out anyway. Kennedy is--I don't know. It's funny how ordinary he seemed at first. But when you get to know him, he's like--God, almost. He's strong and wise and good. He--" Her voice trailed off and she sat looking foolishly at her glass. "You know," said Sworsky, "perhaps Colin is right after all." "Don't say that!" She jumped up and slapped his face. "Kennedy's _good_, I tell you! All you little lice sitting here making sly remarks behind his back, and he's so, much bigger than all of you and--" She broke into tears and stormed out of the apartment. Sworsky reported the affair to Fraser. "I wonder," he said. "It doesn't seem natural, I'll agree. But what can anybody do? The police?" "I've tried," said Fraser dully. "They laughed. When I insisted, I damn near got myself jugged. That's no use. The trouble is, none of the people who've been under the machine will testify against Kennedy. He fixes it so they worship him." "I still think you're crazy. There _must_ be a simpler hypothesis; I refuse to believe your screwy notions without some real evidence. But what are you going to do now?"