"Look out, Bob!" Knight called. But the butterball was quicker than Mallory's pistol. He squirmed suddenly, his face stiffening with the pain of the Thing's entrance. [Illustration: _"Look out!" Knight called. But the thing was quicker than Mallory._] Knight caught a sudden thought within his mind. With an abrupt movement, he spun, dashed for the guardsmen by the door and plowed his way through them somehow, feeling the shock of a half-dozen Things darting into his body. But he broke through, the Things within him screaming and snarling at his mind. _Sammy had the answer! He still has the answer. Sammy has the weapon._ The words pounded into his mind, upholding it against the onslaughts of the Things. _They hate me!_ He gloried in the thought. _Let them. I have the weapon now. Hating me won't hurt any more!_ He fell, tripping; one leg had momentarily refused to function as the concentrated power of the thoughts of the half-dozen Things within him lashed at his mind. He staggered to his feet, his mind fighting, his lungs laboring. He found the cubicle door at last, and with a tremendous effort of will stepped across the threshold. Sammy was there--good, wonderful, precious Sammy, with his bald head, his hook nose and his bottle. His bottle. He half-staggered across the room. The Things within him screamed and tore at his very soul, but he managed to snatch the bottle from Sammy's hand and gulp it hurriedly. The Things tried to make him vomit, but he held the hot liquor down until he felt it warming him deep inside. The shock of the liquor reached into his blood stream and he felt the Things' frantic struggles wane. _Yah_, he thought exultingly, _yah! One man's drink is another man's poison. And, Things, are you going to get poisoned!_ The Things died. _I'm just a little drunk_, Kent Knight thought. He looked down around him. For a moment, he thought he saw a half-dozen shadows on the silvery deck. But then the shadows were gone and his mind was free again. Sammy was staring at him with worried eyes. Knight bent down and kissed Sammy's bald spot with a loud smack. "Bless you, you stinking drunk," Knight muttered, and staggered out, bottle in hand. Sammy was still sitting there when Knight came back with four guardsmen. The bottle he had was removed from his hand and Knight and the guardsmen staggered out. Sammy didn't mind the second or the third or the fourth time, but, when Knight came back with Mallory and snatched the fifth bottle, he rebelled. He hung onto the bottle. "What in the name of space are you doing with my liquor? Are you trying to put me on the wagon?" Knight and Mallory laughed and almost as a duet shook their fingers in Sammy's face. "We're having a purge. We are cleaning minds of nasty thoughts." Sammy relinquished the bottle, and puzzledly followed Knight and Mallory.