George gazed on these reactions with amazed satisfaction. Obviously these mortals were pathetically easy to please; if a simple demonstration of levitation could cause this much concern, just think how they'd react to some of his other accomplishments! The ham bone popped out in George's restrained soul like an internal rash. With a small formal bow, first fore, then aft, the self-dazzled spook sat down with a flourish, placed his hand comfortably behind his neck, and stretched out with suspenseful deliberation. Then, dangling one foot lazily in space, he dissolved his head. [Illustration: George threw the courtroom into an uproar as he suddenly dematerialized his head....] As a low moan issued through the courtroom, one of the photographers nearest this dreadful scene turned to another of his kind. "You know, Harry," he said in a controlled voice, "I've been thinking. You and me, we've been in this racket an awful long time now." "Yeah," said Harry. "An awful long time." "Yeah. Maybe too long. It's no kind of a life for a man with any kind of sensitivity, you know. It's liable to take a bad effect on a guy after a while." "I know what you mean," Harry said thoughtfully. "You get around too much, see too many screwy things. It might begin to give you a sort of distorted view like." "Sure. It could even get so bad you could get kind of unbalanced. Maybe it would start with you seein' things that aren't real." "Uh-huh," Harry nodded. "Maybe like guys floatin' around in the air without they've got their heads on. Or something like that. Not that I've ever seen no such thing, mind you." "Of course not. Who would see a crazy thing like that unless it was somebody goin' bugs or somethin'?" The photographer laughed falsely. "It's funny to think a thing like that could happen to a guy." "Yeah," Harry said. "It's a real laugh. What say we get the hell out of here?" "You bet! Let's run like the devil!" Together, the men dropped their cameras to the floor, turned, and ran as fast as they could out of the court room. Meanwhile, a new groan of horrified amazement had gone through the room. George, in an effort to demonstrate to his audience the very last measure of his paralyzing talent, had introduced a new and even more arresting wrinkle to his performance. Alternately dematerializing and rematerializing in rapid succession, he was blinking on and off like a neon sign. The judge took one look at this nerve-twisting innovation and rallied to a final effort. He reached for his gavel and brought it down feebly on the bench. "Dismissed!" he whizzed. "Dismissed! I dismiss everything. For the love of Hannah, _dismissed_!" Suddenly the court broke into pandemonium. The traffic to the doors was disordered and chaotic as the members of the audience trampled each other to be out of the place. In front of the bench George perceived regretfully that he had lost his audience, dissolved himself for one last time and sank slowly down to the floor.