Kane felt a coldness on his neck. His stomach seemed to turn completely over. The devil with this, he thought. His eyeballs felt as though they were covered with sand, and his lids seemed leaded weights. He pushed back his chair. "You'll excuse me," he said. "But I'm really tired out. I'm going to get some rest--" "But the night's young for us, man," Laura shrieked. "We're having more Scotch," Lucille said, watching him carefully. "Fun time's only starting for us," the young man protested, and the fat man and Jenny and all of them protested loudly together, laughing all the while. Kane was backing away. The hell with them. He turned and ran for the elevator. Then he remembered that he didn't know what room he was supposed to be checked into. He didn't have a key either. He-- Two smiling men, were on either side of him. In a mirror he could see the half smiling, half concerned faces of Phil and Laura, and the slightly sardonic eyes of Lucille. "Don't worry, Gang," he heard Phil say. "We're taking a Special room. We'll be together again soon." "This way," the two young smiling men said. They wore uniforms and appeared to be bellhops. "We'll show you to our room." * * * * * The two bellhops started to back out of the room. "What's special about it?" Kane asked. "Only thing I can see about it that could be considered special is that it's about big enough to be someone's closet! I reserved a suite. What kind of a run-around is this anyway?" It was hardly bigger than a large closet. A white room, with only a single bed in it, and a bureau. Through a narrow, partly open door, he could see a bathroom, and that was it. "Well," the bellhop said, smiling. "It's our Single." "You mean you call it special because it's a single," Kane asked. The bellhops nodded. "Why?" Kane insisted. "What's special about a single?" "We only have one single here," the bellhops said. "We hope you are comfortable with us, Professor Kane." "Look here! Why should you only have one single in this entire hotel? And what's so special about it?" "This single is seldom demanded by guests," the bellhop said. "I didn't demand it. I reserved a suite, or at least I understood that my friend, Phil Nordson, reserved a suite. I certainly didn't demand this!" "But--but of course you did. We have to have a single when we're--not getting along well with ourselves." Kane started for the door, but the two men backed out and shut it in his face. He tried the knob. The door was locked. He turned quickly and scanned the room, but there was no key visible. Then one of the curtains moved as he walked toward it, and he saw that the narrow window was barred. As he swept the curtains aside to look out through the bars, and grabbed at the bars in a kind of instinctual gesture, a metal panel slid noiselessly across and shut out a flash of neon light. He was alone, locked up like a dangerous madman! * * * * *