Smith hadn't told even a tiny bit of a lie. Lying, as
any married man knows, is knowing what to say and what not to say at
the right time. But to get back to the rest. I dismissed Suggs. I
ignored him for all the rest of the time he was there. Even when I
looked directly at him, and that hurt him. I have hopes, high hopes,
that might have brought on the real heart attack he had the next day.

"So," I said generally to the rest of the table, "let's just assume
from now on that you're dealing with a homicidal maniac with unlimited
power. Is that the phrase you were thinking of, General?"

General Legree jumped as though he had seen me pull the pin on a live
grenade.

"Forget it, General," I told him kindly. "I just read a lot of your
speeches. Now you, Mr. Morgan, you're apparently having a meeting. I
got here a little late. How about telling me the score?"

The tension seemed to seep out of the room as tangible as a stream of
water. Suggs shrank up in his chair like a little old kobold, the
Generals shifted into easier positions with the old familiar creak of
expensive leather, and the man Smith looked right at me with his right
eye closed. I'd said what he wanted me to say, but now what? Where did
we go from here?

Undersecretary of State Theodore Morgan was one of the career men to
be found in State Departments throughout the world, if by that you
mean someone who has had the same job for years. The newspapers liked
to tee off on him occasionally, using his pseudo-British mannerisms
and habits for caricature. And the great American public, I suppose,
considered him pretty much as a jerk, as the public is most apt to do
when regarding a man who wore striped pants and a top hat in public
and apparently liked it. But the Old Man, Smith--and I never did find
out if Morgan was Smith's boss or vice versa--set me straight on a lot
of things about Morgan. He had a fairly rough job, as jobs are when
you do something you dislike merely because policy has been set by
higherups. Let's just say he did the best he could, and let it go at
that.

He was in charge of the meeting, all right. He knew just how to handle
Simon Legree, and without Suggs things went fairly smooth--on the
surface.

"Mr. Miller," he said, "you made a rather abrupt entrance into the
conversation. I think it better if we have it understood right now
that we prefer to use reason instead of volume."

"Call me Pete," I said. I knew, somehow that he hadn't