so?"

Keith laughed grimly.

"Don't let's talk about it," he urged. "No good talking about it. The
only thing to do is to fight it--get out of the machine ..."

"But there's nowhere to go, is there?" asked Jenny. "I was thinking
about it this evening. 'They've' got every bit of the earth. Wherever
you go 'they're' there ... with laws and police and things all ready for
you. You've _got_ to give in."

"I'm not going to," said Keith. "I'll tell you that, Jenny."

"But Keith! Who is it that makes it so? There _must_ be somebody to
start it. Is it God?"

Keith laughed again, still more drily and grimly.


ii

Jenny was not yet satisfied. She still continued to revolve the matter
in her mind.

"You said nobody was free, Keith. But then you said you were free--when
you got married."

_"Till_ I got married. Then I wasn't. I fell into the machine and got
badly chawed then."