Dolan felt Smith's fingers touch his neck lightly, there was a sudden blazing pain, and that was all. He blanked out. * * * * * The first thing he knew after that was that fingers were working gently at his neck, massaging it. His head was resting on something soft. He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying with his head pillowed on Moirta's lap. "George?" she said sharply. "Are you all right, George?" "I'm all right," he said. He raised his head and looked around. The machine was gone, and Smith and Brown were gone, and half the boxes were gone. The end ones in the little semicircle were broken, and from them a pile of brass cartridges had spilled through the hole in the floor where the others had been. "Wise jerks," he mumbled with grim satisfaction. "See how they like it now." Moirta stared at him. "What happened, George? I don't understand what happened." "I gimmicked the machine. That's what happened. Surprise, huh? I'll bet they were plenty surprised too." "But I thought--" Dolan sat up and felt tenderly of his throat. He nodded. "I know," he said. "You thought they had me licked. So did they. That was just smoke-screen, a little diversion. I knew they could out-smart me if I tried to pull anything foxy, that's their trade. But they weren't really mind-readers, you told me that, and the business with the notes cinched it. "And they didn't think like technicians. They could see I might disable the machine, or booby-trap it; but they couldn't see I could fix it so it would work, only just a little different. "All I had to do was to keep their minds on their own specialty, let them wear out their suspicion on the little foxy tricks they expected, so they wouldn't notice what I was really doing. See?" She shook her head. "No," she said. "I do not see. I suppose I'm stupid, too--" "Not stupid. Just not technically minded. You understand, this machine works by setting up a field around itself, ordinarily that field's circular, it takes in everything in a certain radius. But it doesn't have to be, that's just because it's the easiest way, more convenient. So I just distorted the field a little, made it lopsided. Then I went through all that other business to keep their minds on me, keep them off your position, and make sure they both stayed over on my side." He smiled at her. "I told you, remember, in this time the villains always get it in the neck, the boy gets the girl, and they live happily ever after." She shook her head. "No," she said gently. "I'm sorry, for you and me there will not be any ever after. You forget the displacement effect." "Displacement effect?"