I must
demonstrate beyond question that psi ability did not cause his
ascendancy! Help me to contrive a lie which will keep anyone, ever, from
dreaming that psi ability can be used to seize a government and a
nation. It could seize the world more terribly....

I cannot express the urgency of this need! There are others who possess
The Leader's powers in a lesser degree. They must remain only swindlers
and such, without ambitions to rule, or they might study The Leader's
career as Napoleon studied Alexander's. There must be no hint, anywhere,
of the secret I have discovered. There must be nothing to lead to the
least thought of it! The Leader could have multiplied his power
ten-thousand-fold! Another like him must never learn how it could be
done!

I beg your help, Karl! I am shaken. I am terrified. I wish that I had
not undertaken this research. I wish it almost as desperately as I wish
that The Leader had never been born!

* * * * *

Letter from Colonel Sigmund Knoeller, retired, to Professor Albrecht
Aigen, Brunn University.

Herr Professor:

In response to your authorized request for information about certain
events; I have the honor to inform you that at the time you mention I
was Major in command of the Second Battalion of the 161st Infantry
Regiment, assigned to guard duty about the residence of The Leader.
Actual guard duty was performed by the secret police. My battalion
merely provided sentries around the perimeter of the residence, and at
certain places within.

On August 19th I received a command to march three companies of my men
into the residence, to receive orders from The Leader in person. This
command was issued by the Herr General Breyer, attached to The Leader as
a military aide.

I led my men inside according to the orders, guided by the orderly who
had brought them. I entered an inner courtyard. There was disturbance.
People moved about in a disorderly fashion and chattered agitatedly.
This was astonishing in The Leader's residence. I marched up to General
Breyer, who stood outside a group biting his nails. I saluted and said:
"Major Knoeller reporting for orders, Herr General."

There was then confusion in the nearby squabbling group. A man burst out
of it and waved his arms at me. He looked like The Leader. He cried
shrilly:

"Arrest these men! All of them! Then shoot them!"

I looked at the Herr General Breyer. He bit his nails. The man who
looked so