local
agents bringing up the rear. Since they were not a part of Her Majesty's
personal retinue, they had not been required to wear court costumes. In
a way, Malone was beginning to feel sorry for them. He himself cut a
nice figure in the outfit, he thought--rather like Errol Flynn in the
old black-and-white print of "The Prince and the Pauper."

But there was no denying that the procession looked strange. File clerks
and receptionists stopped their work to gape at the four bedizened
walkers and their plainly dressed satellites. Malone needed no
telepathic talent to tell what they were thinking.

"A whole roundup of nuts," they were thinking. "And those two fellows in
the back must be bringing them in--along with Dr. Dowson."

Malone straightened his spine. Really, he didn't see why Elizabethan
costumes had ever gone out of style. Elizabeth was back, wasn't
she--either Elizabeth II, on the throne, or Elizabeth I, right behind
him. Either way you looked at it--

When they were all inside the waiting room, Dr. Dowson said: "Now, Mr.
Malone, just what is all this about?" He rubbed his long hands together.
"I fail to see the humor of the situation."

"Humor?" Malone said.

"Doctor," Barbara Wilson began, "let me explain. You see--"

"These ridiculous costumes," Dr. Dowson said, waving a hand at them.
"You may feel that poking fun at insanity is humorous, Mr. Malone, but
let me tell you--"

"It wasn't like that at all," Boyd said.

"And," Dr. Dowson continued in a somewhat louder voice, "wanting to take
Mr. Logan away from us. Mr. Logan is a very sick man, Mr. Malone. He
should be properly cared for."

"I promise we'll take good care of him." Malone said earnestly. The
Elizabethan clothes were fine outdoors, but in a heated room one had a
tendency to sweat.

"I take leave to doubt that," Dr. Dowson said, eying their costumes
pointedly.

"Miss Wilson here," Malone volunteered, "is a trained psychiatric
nurse."

Barbara, in her gown, stepped forward. "Dr. Dowson," she said, "let me
assure you that these costumes have their purpose. We--"

"Not only that," Malone said. "There are a group of trained men from St.
Elizabeths Hospital in Washington who are going to take the best of care
of him." He said nothing whatever about Yucca Flats, or about telepathy.

Why spread around information unnecessarily?

"But I don't understand," Dr. Dowson said. "What interest could the FBI
have in an insane man?"

"That's n