nts of the past 48 hours are
proof absolute that large numbers of foreign saboteurs and agents are at
work."

"Had enough?" asked the stewardess.

Lee confessed that he had.

* * * * *

With its helicopters feathered, the Greyhound came sliding down onto the
Bus Terminal's roof; fifteen minutes later Lee stood again at his
father's door, that door he had thought once before he would never see
again.

The old man's loose-skinned face, tanned like saddle leather, didn't
move an inch at the sight of the son: "You again, Semper? Come in then."

Lee vaguely sensed that his father was glad he had come; that there was
some unfinished business left from their last conversation and that his
father welcomed the opportunity to finish it.

"You know," he said as his stiff-jointed legs carried him back to the
table with bottle and glasses trembling on the tray in his hands, "you
know, I've named these four walls after old friends of mine--all of them
dead--but sometimes they won't answer when I talk to them. And then I'm
glad when somebody happens along. But don't take that to mean that I'm
in my dotage now or getting mad."

"No, Father; that's just loneliness."

"In any case, Son, there are lots of people lots madder than I am.
There's a woman living next door, a spinster, answers to the name of
Pimpernel. This morning she came running over crying that her
vacuum-cleaner was chasing her all over the house. And by God, Semper,
it was a fact. Never saw anything like it. One of those new-fangled
automatic contraptions which are supposed to do the job all alone by
themselves, and it banged around and chased about as if it had a
hornet's nest under its bonnet. Scared the poor woman to death."

"What did you do?"

"What could I do? I'm not a mechanic; there was no cord attached or
anything to plug out. So I got my automatic and shot the damn thing."

"Shot it?"

"Sure; bullet must have penetrated something; anyway it stopped dead on
the spot. And now she threatens to sue me for damages; there's gratitude
for you. What brought you here?"

Lee felt elated; obviously his father was in high spirits from this
morning's successful hunt; for once he was in a receptive _mood_.

Rapidly, with all the precision he could muster, Lee explained, as an
adjutant would explain a new development in a strategic situation to his
commanding general. After a while the old man started pacing the floor
in risi