Electrodes were clamped on Kane's head and wrists. Something was strapped around his chest. Wires ran into a miniature Reacto. A stylus began to make jagged lines on a strip of moving tape. "We're getting a complete personality checkup," the Staff said. It was indeed complete. It was as complete as a personality checkup could be short of an actual dissection. Kane looked at countless ink-blots. He was shown a great many pictures and whether he answered verbally or not was of no concern of the Staff. Whatever his reactions were, they were all analyzed by the machines. Words weren't necessary. The Staff had a shortcut to personality checkups. From the mind right into the machine. The Staff only interpreted the results, or maybe they didn't even do that. It was more likely that machines did that too. Kane protested for a while, but he was too tired to protest very long. He asked them a great many questions, and they answered them willingly enough--up to a point. They were interested in his questions too. He was an interesting symptom, but actually he knew that they already had him pretty well tabbed. They answered his questions the way big-hearted adults answered inquisitive children. "We must," the Staff said, "determine why you don't fit in." Kane talked about his work, his theories, his years of devotion to what he had always considered to be a contribution to society. They hardly seemed interested. What good was all that--astronomy and such--when a man was not happy with others? "What about this aversion to people?" the Staff said, in a kindly way. "This--well--clinically, this de-grouping syndrome. This antagonism to the group spirit." "You mean my reaction to Phil and his friends?" "Your friends. Your Group," The Staff said. "But I don't dislike those people," Kane insisted. "Certainly, I have no aversion to them! Hell, I don't even _know_ them." "But they're people," the Staff said. "Part of the family of man." "I know that. But I was tired and wanted to sleep!" "You'll find the true group Spirit," the Staff said. "Let us ask you this, Professor Kane. If you really had no aversion to people generally, why would you object to them being with you? Why should the presence of people disturb your sleep? Wouldn't a healthy person enjoy sleeping with others merely because they were there? Doesn't one sleep best among friends, knowing he isn't alone, knowing even his sleep is shared--" There was a great deal more, but it all boiled down to the same thing. Kane was wrong. And he didn't have the right to be wrong. * * * * * They, or rather it, the Staff, seemed to concentrate on the whole question of why Kane had ever volunteered for a job demanding extreme isolation in the first place. The point was that apparently Kane had been anti-social, a Group Spirit deviant from the beginning.