Naito blew it up. Instead of inflating to a round shape it extended itself into a long, banana like form. Then he blew it up again, and this time shapes like fingers came out of it at various points. "Well?" said Blair. "You still don't see, do you? Tell me, what do you _want_ me to do." "Oh, the water illusion, and the balloon thing are clever enough--I don't have any idea how you do it," said Blair, "but the tricks, well, they lack drama, if you see what I mean. No flash. I'd like a good visual trick. One I can really photograph." Now Naito seemed to seethe inside. He breathed quickly, heavily as he talked. "What will you have?" he said. "What will you have, Mr. Blair? I can do the Hindu rope trick, I can fascinate snakes, and I can put Yuki in a box and saw her in half. Is that the kind of thing you might understand?" "Well, it ought to be something sort of new," said Blair. "New," repeated Naito. "Something new. Very well, then. But first you must understand. This time you _must_ understand. We will have tea." They sat upon grass mats in one of the cottages over cups of pale green tea. Yuki sat beside Blair, and her shoulder touched him now and then. When this happened he found it difficult to concentrate on what Naito was saying. "Your western science," said Naito, "is only beginning to learn what we know. And from a totally different viewpoint. Your Dr. Norbert Wiener has beautifully clarified the essential fallacy of the Newtonian viewpoint, that nature acts and reacts according to rigid laws. He shows, instead, that it is highly _probable_ nature will do this. Probable enough so that for everyday purposes one may depend on it. Do you follow me, Mr. Blair?" "I'm afraid I'm not very much up on my science." "Well, I'm trying to explain it in terms a westerner will understand. You saw a quantity of water run uphill. It was not an illusion, Mr. Blair. It is highly probable that water will not run uphill, but it is also possible that, under certain circumstances, it may. And as for the balloon--tell me, why does gas exert equal pressure in every direction?" "I'm sure I don't know." "But you must remember, surely. The molecules of a gas fly about in random directions. They exert force upon the walls of any container the gas happens to be in. Entropy--or the universal tendency toward disorder that Wiener speaks of--keeps an average of them exerting force in _all_ directions. So the pressure remains equal in all directions, and we can measure it, and be certain, reasonably certain, that the next man who measures it will get the same result." "I remember Boyle's law." "Exactly. And Boyle's law, or Ohm's laws, or Newton's laws, or anyone else's laws are based on probability--nearly overwhelming probability. But what happens in the rare, almost unthinkable case where every factor does not act according to the most pragmatic law of all--the law of averages?" "We're getting way up in the clouds now," said Blair.