"Not sufficiently wide awake to listen to your talk, damn you!"
The American smiled nastily.
"Maybe not, but this is a case of having to. Say! ever been in one of those big machine shops and seen a giant flywheel swizzling round at three hundred revs. a minute? Guess you wouldn't be gink enough to put out a hand and try to stop it. Never saw any machine yet that develops more power than I can."
Richard shrugged a shoulder; it was too great an effort to shrug both of them.
"And I guess you ain't going to stop the fly-wheel of my destiny."
"You've had a sample," he replied with a touch of spirit.
Hipps came a step closer and hooked his foot round a leg of Richard's chair.
"Know anything about the third degree?" he demanded.
"What you've shown me."
Richard's voice sounded far away and disinterested.