"Don't worry," I said. "I'll arrange it somehow. Larry Boggs is going to live through this, if anybody is--" "What's that? What's that you said?" "I said I'm going to live through this--" "No, no, the name. Boggs. Is that your name?" "Certainly that's my name. Colonel Lawrence E. Boggs, United States Army, and--" He was laughing. He was laughing loudly, uproariously, and, I thought, hollowly. The background noise in the receiver had been steadily getting worse. Now it swelled, like an angry sea. Interference of some sort snarled and crackled. A sick feeling began to grow like fungus in my stomach. Suddenly his voice came through again. He was still laughing. "Generalissimo Lawrence E. Boggs survived all right Colonel, he--" All the noise cut away suddenly. There was a pinpoint of silence. Then the mechanical operator: "I'm sorry! Your time is up!"