It was the truth. I, my real self did not mean.-- ... Yet how could I express it in words? How could I explain to her that the piece of iron did not want to.... But that the law is precise, inevitable! O-90 lifted her face from the pillow and without opening her eyes she said, "Go away." But because she was crying she pronounced it "Oo aaa-ay." For some reason this absurd detail will not leave my memory. Penetrated by the cold and torpid, I went out into the hall. I pressed my forehead against the cold glass. Outside a thin, almost imperceptible film of haze was spread. "Towards night," I thought, "it will descend again and drown the world. How sad a night it will be!" O-90 passed swiftly by, going toward the elevator. The door slammed. "Wait a minute!" I screamed. I was frightened. But the elevator was already groaning, going down--down--down.... "She robbed me of R-, she robbed me of O-90, yet, yet ... nevertheless...." RECORD FIFTEEN The Bell The Mirror-Like Sea I Am To Burn Eternally I was walking upon the dock where the _Integral_ is being built, when the Second Builder came to meet me. His face as usual was round and white,--a porcelain plate. When he speaks it seems as though he serves you a plate of something unbearably tasty. "You chose to be ill, and without the Chief we had an accident, as it were, yesterday." "An accident?" "Yes, sir. We finished the bell and started to let it down, and imagine! the men caught a male without a number. How he got in, I cannot make out. They took him to the Operation Department. Oh, they'll draw the mystery out of the fellow there; 'why' and 'how,' etc...." He smiled delightedly. Our best and most experienced physicians work in the Operation Department under the direct supervision of the Well-Doer himself. They have all kinds of instruments, but the best of all is the Gas Bell. The procedure is taken from an ancient experiment of elementary physics: they used to put a rat under a gas bell and gradually pump out the air; the air becomes more and more rarified, and ... you know the rest.