and my--"

"All right, all right," Arpad snapped. The Hungarian was no fool and
obviously smelled something wrong in this atmosphere. He turned to
Joe. "I would remind you, major, that you as an individual are
responsible for any deviations from the basic Universal Disarmament
Pact. You, and any of your superiors who can be proven to have had
knowledge of such deviation."

"I am familiar with the articles of war, as detailed in the pact," Joe
said dryly. "And now, gentlemen, I am afraid my duty calls me." He
bowed stiffly, saluted correctly. "A pleasure to make your
acquaintance Colonel Majumdur, Major Kamil. Colonel Arpad, a pleasure
to renew acquaintance."

They answered his salute and stared after him as he climbed into the
sailplane and signaled to the pilot of the lightplane which was to tow
him into the air. Max Mainz ran to the tip of one wing, lifting it
from the ground and steadying the glider until forward motion gave
direction and buoyancy.

Freddy Soligen growled, "Zen! If they'd known I had a machine gun
tucked away in this tripod case."

Joe said unhappily, "The Sovs have obviously decided to put up a howl
about the use of aircraft in the West-world."

He shifted his hand on the stick, gently, and the glider which had
been sliding along on its single wheel, lifted ever so gently into the
air. Joe kept it at an altitude of about six feet until the lightplane
was air-borne.

Freddy growled, "How come the Hungarians have become so important in
the Sov-world? I thought it was the Russians who started their whole
shooting-match."

Joe said wryly, "That's something some of the early timers like Stalin
didn't figure out when they began moving in on their neighbors. They
could have learned a lesson from Hollywood about the Hungarians. What
was the old saying? _If you've got a Hungarian for a friend, you don't
need any enemies._"

Freddy laughed, even as he looked apprehensively over the sailplane's
side. He said, "Yeah, or that other one. The Hungarians are the only
people who can enter a revolving door behind you and come out in
front."

Joe said, "Well, that's what happened to the Russians." He pointed.
"There's the reservation. We'll be cutting from the airplane in a
moment now. Listen, were you able to find out who either of General
McCord's glider pilots are?"

[Illustration]

"Yeah," Freddy told him. "Both are captains. One named Bob Flaubert
and the other Jimmy Hideka."

"Bob Flaubert?"