linger in torture for weeks. No, Bormann, the best I can say about Winkler is that his death makes one nonentity the less on earth."

The older man turned to his desk again and the two younger clerks continued the conversation: "Degenhart appears to be a hard man," said Fritz, "but he's the best and kindest person I know, and he's dead right in what he says. It was simply a case of conventional superstition. I never did like that Winkler."

"No, you're right," said the other. "Neither did I and I don't know why, for the matter of that. He seemed just like a thousand others. I never heard of anything particularly wrong that he did."

"No, no more did I," continued Bormann, "but I never heard of anything good about him either. And don't you think that it's worse for a man to seem to repel people by his very personality, rather than by any particular bad thing that he does?"

"Yes. I don't know how to explain it, but that's just how I feel about it. I had an instinctive feeling that there was something wrong about Winkler, the sort of a creepy, crawly feeling that a snake gives you."