He flipped the switches as he had seen Kingallis do it. He inserted the reel magazine in the obvious slot and fiddled with some tiny toggles until the reel started to feed through the machine.
Then quickly, Carroll slipped the head electrodes on and reclined on the soft couch to let the flow of knowledge enter.
In complete oblivion as the machine ran, Carroll had no control over his actions. It ran on and on and the unreeling wire passed its knowledge into Carroll's brain. It concluded finally and Carroll sat up.
It was faintly light outside and by that faint light Carroll looked at his watch and was amazed to find that it was almost six o'clock in the morning. He quickly replaced the reel and turned to go back to his room.
"Pleased with yourself?" asked a quiet voice.
Carroll jumped a foot. Then in the dim light he saw the form of a woman, fully dressed, sitting in an easy chair not far from the door. To add to his complete surprise he hadn't known that women were with this outfit.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Plead, do not demand," she said. "For you have not the right to courtesy."
"Madam, I am a prisoner here. Courtesy per se has no meaning at all. I have as much right to prowl the place, picking up what I can, as you have to imprison me in the first place."
"A nice point of ethics and quite devoid of rational answer," smiled the woman. In the gaining light James Forrest Carroll saw that she was passably good looking though certainly no raving beauty. When she spoke, her white teeth gleamed in the dim light.