was more than half intoxicated.
Akbar took the chair opposite to him. "We couldn't get it," he said; in a
whisper, though there was nobody within earshot. "Oh, Dr. Balloch, Dr.
Balloch! do try to understand! It was impossible. We tried all sorts of ways."
The doctor's voice had a soft suavity. Though a licensed physician, he had
long since abandoned legitimate practice, and under the guise of homeopathy
pursued various courses which would have been but ill regarded by more
regular practitioners.
His reply was horrible, uttered as it was in feline falseness, like a caress.
"You foul ass!" he said. "I have to take this up with S.R.M.D., you know!
What will he say and do?"
"I tell you I couldn't. There was an old man there who spoilt everything, in
my idea."
"An old man?" Dr. Balloch almost dropped his hypocritical bedside voice
in his rage. "Oh curse, oh curse it all!" He leant over to the Turk, caught his
beard, and deliberately pulled it. There is no grosser insult that you can offer
to a Mussulman, but Akbar accepted it without resentment. Yet so savage
was the assault that a sharp cry of pain escaped him.
 You dog! you Turkish swine!" hissed Balloch. "Do you know what has
happened? S.R.M.D. sent a Watcher — a bit of himself, do you understand
what that means, you piece of dirt? — and it hasn't returned. It must have
been killed, but we can't find out how, [118] and S.R.M.D. is lying half dead
in his house. You pig! Why didn't you come with your storry at once? I know
now what is wrong."
"You know I don't know your address," said the Turk humbly. "Please, oh
please, leave go of my beard!"
Balloch contemptuously released his victim — who was a brave enough
man in an ordinary way, and would have had the blood of his own Sultan,
though he knew that the guards would cut him to pieces within the next ten
seconds, for the least of such words as had been addressed to him. But
Balloch was his Superior in the Black Lodge, which rules by terror and by
torture; its first principle was to enslave its members. The bully Balloch
became a whimpering cur at the slightest glance of the dreaded S.R.M.D.
"Tell me what the old man was like," he said. "Did you get his name?"
"Yes," said Akbar, "I got that. It was Simon Iff."
Balloch dashed his glass upon the ground. "Oh hell! Oh hell! Oh hell!" he
said, not so much as a curse but as an invocation. "Hear, oh hear this