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lip service and placation by worry; so if somebody vested with authority tells him there is no need to worry, the effect is simply to disarm the victim. This naturally induces frantic resistance. Might just as well tell the mouse not to worry about the cat, when not to worry is likely to insult and offend the cat even more. And if the cat was conceived in thunder and lightning and spawned in prehistoric storm cold and deluge - in fact, antedates the spurious mouse - then you can see that the two opponents are very unevenly matched and that even when the cat is not in evidence you would have to be cautious and not awaken its anger or otherwise attract its attention.

    All this just to show that it is very important to all of us to know

that we are healthy, because in that case perhaps there is no war god of dark mysteries at all, or else the priestess has never focused her attention on us. But gestures of prudence and foresight are in order, so that we should not be punished for over-confidence.

    And the revengeful power often approaches very subtly, so that it is

advisable to watch carefully for signs. You are a thoughtful man, Inspector and I'm sure you would have made the same observation if you had been trained in medicine instead of the detection in falsification. You only have to lay aside a little human false pride and flamboyance and penetrate more sympathetically and humbly into your own depths as well as those of the patient, to see how deep and ineradicable is our mystical nature and hence our superstition. It's in the very protoplasm, latent or active."

    "I believe you, Doctor.  And as for the signs, I suppose I can

feel this sliding clavicle as something beyond a mere medical problem, a nuisance. I presume I'm the mouse, figuring that that paw missed me the first time and the clavicle shows that it will reach out again, on some crowded free-way or in some dark alley, and that I'd better not forget it because the next time will be it. Six months ago, I would have thought you were nuts. And now I think I'm nuts!"

   "I think you're human.  And since we are not very likely