nter-snatch didn't work. The Snakes had guards posted--most unusual
and we weren't warned. The whole thing was a great mess. No wonder Bruce
lost his head--not that it excuses him."

"The New Boy?" I asked. Sid hadn't got to him and he was still standing
with hooded eyes where Erich had left him, a dark pillar of shame and
rage.

"_Ja_, a lieutenant from World War One. An Englishman."

"I gathered that," I told Erich. "Is he really effeminate?"

"_Weibischer?_" He smiled. "I had to call him something when he said I
was a coward. He'll make a fine Soldier--only needs a little more
shaping."

"You men are so original when you spat." I lowered my voice. "But you
shouldn't have gone on and called him a Snake, Erich mine."

"_Schlange?_" The smile got crooked. "Who knows--about any of us? As
Saint Petersburg showed me, the Snakes' spies are getting cleverer than
ours." The blue eyes didn't look sweet now. "Are you, _Liebchen_, really
nothing more than a good loyal Spider?"

"Erich!"

"All right, I went too far--with Bruce and with you too. We're all
hacked these days, riding with one leg over the breaking edge."

Maud and Beau were supporting the Roman to a couch, Maud taking most of
his weight, with Sid still supervising and the New Boy still sulking by
himself. The New Girl should have been with him, of course, but I
couldn't see her anywhere and I decided she was probably having a
nervous breakdown in the Refresher, the little jerk.

"The Roman looks pretty bad, Erich," I said.

"Ah, Mark's tough. Got virtue, as his people say. And our little
starship girl will bring him back to life if anybody can and if ..."

"... you call this living," I filled in dutifully.

* * * * *

He was right. Maud had fifty-odd years of psychomedical experience, 23rd
Century at that. It should have been Doc's job, but that was fifty
drunks back.

"Maud and Mark, that will be an interesting experiment," Erich said.
"Reminiscent of Goering's with the frozen men and the naked gypsy
girls."

"You are a filthy Nazi. She'll be using electrophoresis and deep
suggestion, if I know anything."

"How will you be able to know anything, _Liebchen_, if she switches on
the couch curtains, as I perceive she is preparing to do?"

"Filthy Nazi I said and meant."

"Precisely." He clicked his heels and bowed a millimeter. "Erich
Friederich von Hohenwald, _Oberleutnant_ in the army of the Third Reich.
Fell at