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deep breath and raised Dan’s eyelid. I felt myself flinching away, in case the eye was still that fiery red color, but it wasn’t. It had returned to its normal pale gray, and it was plain that Dan was in another state of coma.
    â€œNurse, I want full diagnostic equipment brought up here right away. And page Dr. Foley.”
    The nurse nodded, and left the room, obviously glad to have something distracting to do. I walked up to Dan’s bedside and looked at his pale, fevered face. He didn’t look so much like the scientific hick from Kansas anymore. The lines around his mouth were too deep, and his pallor was too white. But at least he was breathing normally.
    I glanced up at Dr. Jarvis. The doctor was jotting notes down on his clipboard, his expression intense and anxious.
    â€œDo you know what it was?” I asked quietly.
    He didn’t look up, didn’t answer.
    â€œThose red eyes,” I said. “Do you know what could possibly cause that?”
    He stopped writing and stared at me.
    â€œI want to know just what this breathing business you were involved in last night was all about. Are you absolutely sure it wasn’t drugs?”
    â€œLook, I’d tell you if it was. It had to do with a house on Pilarcitos.”
    â€œA house?”
    â€œThat’s right. We both work for the sanitation department, and the owner invited us to come up to his house to listen to this breathing. He said the house made a breathing noise, and he didn’t know what it was.”
    Dr. Jarvis made another check of Dan’s pulse.
    â€œDid you find out what caused it?” he asked. “The breathing?”
    I shook my head. “All I know is that Dan’s been breathing just like it. It’s almost as if the breathing in the house has gone into him. As if he’s possessed.”
    Dr. Jarvis set down his clipboard next to Dan Machin’s bowl of grapes.
    â€œAre you a full-fledged member of the nuts club, or just an associate member?” he asked.
    This time I didn’t take offense. “I know it’s difficult to understand,” I said. “I don’t understand it myself. But possession is just what it seems like. I heard the house breathing, and I heard Dan breathing just now, when his eyes were all red. It sounded to me like one and the same.”
    Dr. Jarvis looked down at Dan and shook his head. “It’s obviously psychosomatic,” he said. “He heard this breathing noise last night, and it frightened him so much that he’s begun to identify with it and breathe in sympathy.”
    â€œWell, maybe. But what made his eyes go like that?”
    Dr. Jarvis took a deep breath. “A trick of the light,” he said evenly.
    â€œA trick of the light? Now, wait a minute I”
    Dr. Jarvis stared at me, hard. “You heard me,” he snapped. “A trick of the light.”
    â€œI saw him myself! So did you!”
    â€œI didn’t see anything. At least, I didn’t see anything that was medically possible. And I think we’d both better remember that before we go shooting our mouths off to anyone else.”
    â€œBut the nurse—”
    Dr. Jarvis waved his hand in deprecation. “In this hospital, nurses are regarded as housemaids in fancy uniforms.”
    I leaned over Dan and examined his waxy face, and the way his lips moved and whispered as he slept.
    â€œDoctor, this guy is more than just sick,” I told him. “This guy has something really, really wrong. Now, what are we going to do about it?”
    â€œThere’s only one thing we can do. Diagnose his problem and give him recognized medical treatment. We don’t undertake exorcisms here, I’m afraid. In any event, I don’t believe this is any worse than an advanced case of hypersuggestibility. Your friend here went up to the house, and became hysterical when he thought he heard breathing. It was probably his own.”
    â€œBut I