"I don't know. I've never "
"Look at me."
She stared at him for a silent moment "Why why, I can see your heart beat! I can see "
"Phil, can you teach me to'see the way she does?"
Huxley rubbed his nose. "I don't know. Maybe "
Joan bent over the big chair in which the doctor was seated. "Won't he go under, Phil?"
"Hell, no. I've tried everything but tapping his skull with a bungstarter. I don't believe there's any brain there to hypnotize."
"Don't be pettish. Let's try again. How do you feel, Ben?"
"All right, but wide awake."
"I'm going out of the room this time. Maybe I'm a distracting factor. Now be a good boy and go sleepybye." She left them.
Five minutes later Huxley called out to her, "Come on back in, kid. He's under."
She came in and looked at Cobum where he lay sprawled in her big easy chair, quiet, eyes half closed. * Ready for me?" she asked, turning to Huxley.
"Yes. Get ready." She lay down on the couch. "You know what I want; get in rapport with Ben as soon as you go under. Need any persuasion to get to sleep?"
"No."
ТVery well. then Sleep!У
She became quiet, lax.
"Are you under, Joan?"
"Yes, Phil."
"Can you reach Ben's mind?"
A short pause: "Yes."
"What do you find?"
"Nothing. It's like an empty room, but friendly. Wait a moment he greeted me."
"Just a greeting. It wasn't in words."
"Can you hear me, Ben?"
"Sure, Phil."
"You two are together?"
"Yes. Yes, indeed."
"Listen to me, both of you. I want you to wake up slowly, remaining in rapport. Then Joan is to teach Ben how to perceive that which is not seen. Can you do it?"
"Yes, Phil, we can." It was as if one voice had spoken.
CHAPTER FOUR Holiday
"FRANKLY, MR. HUXLEY, I can't understand your noncooperative attitude." The President of Western University let the stare from his slightly bulging eyes rest on the second button of Phil's vest. "You have been given every faculty for sound useful research along lines of proven worth. Your program of instructing has been kept light in order that you might make use of your undoubted ability. You have been acting chairman of your sub-department this past semester. Yet instead of profiting by your unusual opportunities, you have, by your own admission, been, shall we say, frittering away your time in the childish pursuit of old wives' tales and silly superstitions, Bless me, man, I don't understand it!"
Phil answered, with controlled exasperation, "But Doctor Brinckley, if you would permit me to show you "
The president interposed a palm. "Please, Mr. Huxley. It is not necessary to go over that ground again. One more thing, it has come to my attention that you have been interfering in the affairs of the medical school."
"The medical school! I haven't set foot inside it in weeks."
"It has come to me from unquestioned authority that you have influenced Doctor Cobum to disregard the advice of the staff diagnosticians in performing surgical operations the best diagnosticians, let me add, on the West Coast."
Huxley maintained his voice at toneless politeness. "Let us suppose for the moment that I have influenced Doctor Cobum I do not concede the point has there been any case in which Cobum's refusal to follow diagnosis has failed to be justified by the subsequent history of the case?"
"That is beside the point. The point is I can't have my staff from one school interfering in the anairs of another school. You see the justice of that, I am sure."
"I do not admit that I have interfered. In fact, I deny it."
"I am afraid I shall have to be the judge of that." Brinckley rose from his desk and came around to where Huxley stood. "Now Mr. Huxley may I call you Philip? I like to have my juniors in our institution think of me as a friend. I want to give you the same advice that I would give to my son. The semester will be over in a day or two. I think you need a vacation. The Board has made some little difficulty over renewing your contract inasmuch as you have not yet completed your doctorate. I took the liberty of assuring them that you would submit a suitable thesis this coming academic year and I feel sure that you can if you will only devote your efforts to sound, constructive work. You take your vacation, and when you come back you can outline your proposed thesis to me. I am quite sure the Board will make no difficulty about your contract then."
"I had intended to write up the results of my current research for my thesis."
Brinckley's brows raised in polite surprise. "Really? But that is out of the question, my boy, as you know. You do need a vacation. Good-bye then; if I do not see you again before commencement, let me wish you a pleasant holiday now."
When a stout door separated him from the president, Huxley dropped his pretense of good manners and hurried across the campus, ignoring students and professors alike. He found Ben and Joan waiting for him at their favorite bench, looking across the La Brea Tar Pits toward Wilshire Boulevard.
He flopped down on the seat beside them. Neither of the men spoke, but Joan was unable to control her impatience. "Well, Phil? What did the old fossil have to say?"
"Gimme a cigaret." Ben handed him a pack and waited. "He didn't say much j'ust threatened me with the loss of my job and the ruination of my academic reputation if I didn't knuckle under and be his tame dog all in the politest of terms of course."
"But Phil, didn't you offer to bring me in and show him the progress you had already made?"
"I didn't bring your name into it; it was useless. He knew who you were well enough he made a sidelong reference to the inadvisability of young instructors seeing female students socially except under formal, fully chaperoned conditions talked about the high moral tone of the university, and our obligation to the public!"
"Why, the dirty minded old so-and-so! I'll tear him apart for that!"
"Take it easy, Joan." Ben Cobum's voice was mild and thoughtful. "Just how did he threaten you, Phil?"
"He refused to renew my contract at this time. He intends to keep me on tenterhooks all summer, then if I come back in the fall and make a noise like a rabbit, he might renew if he feels like it. Damn him! The thing that got me the sorest was a suggestion that I was slipping and needed a rest."
"What are you going to do?"
"Look for a job, I guess. I've got to eat."
Teaching job?"
"I suppose so, Ben."
"Your chances aren't very good, are they, without a formal release from Western. They can blacklist you pretty effectively. You've actually got about as much freedom in the matter as a professional ballplayer."
Phil looked glum and said nothing. Joan sighed and looked out across the marshy depression surrounding the tar pits. Then she smiled and said, "We could lure old Picklepuss down here and push him in."
Both men smiled but did not answer. Joan muttered to herself something about sissies. Ben addressed Phil. "You know, Phil, the old boy's idea about a vacation wasn't too stupid; I could do with one myself."
"Anything in particular in mind?"
"Why, yes, more or less. I've been out here seven years and never really seen the state. I'd like to start out and drive, with no particular destination in mind. Then we could go on up past Sacramento and into northern California. They say it's magnificent country up there. We could take in the High Sierras and the Big Trees on the way back."
"That certainly sounds inviting."
"You could take along your research notes and we could talk about your ideas as we drove. If you decided you wanted to write up some phase, we could just lay over while you did it."