Marc cleared his throat and averted his eyes. "Don't be brazen," he said. "I would offer you these curtains if I didn't need them so desperately myself." "Always the perfect host," Toffee commented. "Never mind me," Marc said. "What about you? Whatever possessed you to do a thing like that?" "Like what?" "Oh, stop it," Marc said wearily. "It was perfectly evident that you were at the bottom of that little demonstration." "At the bottom?" Toffee laughed. "You put it so well. Unless you wanted to say I was at the seat of things." "There you go. Just give you a simple statement and you squeeze enough dirt out of it to start a truck farm." Marc agitated his drapes. "Either you tell me what you're up to or I'll stop projecting you if I have to belt myself over the head with a sledge hammer." Toffee smiled slowly. "I might as well make a clean breast of it," she said. "If the anatomical reference doesn't strike you as too racy?" "Never mind," Marc said shortly. "You wouldn't recognize a moral scruple if it were presented to you in a glass jar." "Very well," Toffee said. "Apparently you've guessed the function of my ring." She held up her hand and the fearsome ornament glittered brightly. "Actually the stone projects a ray which, in effect, sensitizes the bones and tissues of the human body, separates them slightly according to how long you time the concentration, and holds them apart. Maybe you noticed that Julie, just before her accident, was slightly taller than usual. Anyway, once you have the subject focused, it's only a matter of breaking the ray quickly with the other hand. Things, drawn apart and out of line snap back with such a force that the subject might just as well be struck with a hammer." She looked at Marc. "See what I mean?" * * * * * "I think so." Marc said slowly. "In other words you focused the radiation on the base of Julie's spine, drew ... uh ... things out of line, broke the suspending force suddenly, so that they jarred together with such momentum that they were thrown out of place ... the sacroiliac, in this case." "Exactly," Toffee said. "In effect, I simply gave your wife a good rousing kick in the...." "Croup," Marc supplied quickly. "In the croup," Toffee agreed. "And when I wanted her to get over it I merely pulled the ... things ... apart again, then released them more gently so as to return them to their proper adjustment." "But what I want to know," Marc said evenly, "is just what possessed you to demonstrate this diabolical little gadget on Julie?" "Two reasons," Toffee explained. "First to make sure the ring works the way I planned it, second to get Julie out of the way." "Get her out of the way?" Marc repeated apprehensively. "Now look here if you have any sordid notions about a dalliance on a divan, for instance...."