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 with lips thin and tight; but she didn't show fright.

I'm not sure what I showed but I know what I felt. I was dull, not alert like her. One sort of nature seems to dull itself when in for what it can't prevent; that was mine. I guessed that the "glass room" was over in that farther end of this floor.

During those three hours alone in that closet, I had spent a good deal of thought on the "glass room"; and, knowing that the scheme at the Sencort Trust had employed gas, naturally I set to fitting gas in the arrangements of the "glass room." So now that I had seen this was a chemical factory, I was sure I was right. They had some ritual with gas for Doris and me. A rather elaborate ritual, if one were to judge by the time it took them to make ready. Or perhaps they were waiting for somebody.

A telephone instrument stood on the desk beside me. The last time I'd sat down, I had placed myself next it. Now I didn't take it up; I merely moved my hand and lifted the receiver from the hook.

One of the normals saw me and made no move. He had no reason for worry; there was no response in the wire; the circuit was dead.