range widened--after consuming thirty CC of Beta, they could hear the
sound of an ultrasonic dog-whistle quite plainly--but the very quality
of all audible sounds was curiously enhanced and altered. Myers, the
psychologist, who was also well grounded in neurology, explained how the
chemical produced this effect; it meant about as much to Benson as some
of his chemistry did to Bill Myers. There was also a secondary, purely
psychological, effect. Certain musical chords had definite effects on
the emotions of the hearer, and the subject, beside being directly
influenced by the music, was rendered extremely open to verbal
suggestions accompanied by a suitable musical background.

Benson transferred the final results of this stage of the research to
the black notebook and burned the scratch-sheets.

"That's how it happened, then," he said. "The Munich thing was the
result of all that Götterdämmerung music. There was a band at the
baseball park in Baltimore. The New Orleans Orgy started while a local
radio station was broadcasting some of this new dance-music. Look, these
tone-clusters, here, have a definite sex-excitation effect. This series
of six chords, which occur in some of the Wagnerian stuff; effect, a
combined feeling of godlike isolation and despair. And these consecutive
fifths--a sense of danger, anger, combativeness. You know, we could work
out a whole range of emotional stimuli to fit the effects of Ingredient
Beta...."

"We don't want to," Myers said. "We want to work out a substitute for
Beta that will keep the flavor of the drink without the
psycho-physiological effects."

"Yes, sure. I have some of the boys at the plant lab working on that.