was beginning to feel sorry for them. He
himself cut a nice figure in the outfit, he thought--rather like Errol
Flynn in the old black-and-white print of _The Prince and the Pauper_.

But there was no denying that the procession looked strange. File
clerks and receptionists stopped their work to gape at the four
bedizened walkers and their plainly dressed satellites. Malone needed
no telepathic talent to tell what they were thinking.

"A whole roundup of nuts," they were thinking. "And those two fellows
in the back must be bringing them in--along with Dr. Dowson."

Malone straightened his spine. Really, he didn't see why Elizabethan
costumes had ever gone out of style. Elizabeth was back, wasn't she--
either Elizabeth II, on the throne, or Elizabeth I, right behind him.
Either way you looked at it....

When they were all inside the waiting room, Dr. Dowson said: "Now, Mr.
Malone, just what is all this about?" He rubbed his long hands
together. "I fail to see the humor of the situation."

"Humor?" Malone said.

"Doctor," Barbara Wilson began, "let me explain. You see--"

"These ridiculous costumes," Dr. Dowson said, waving a hand at them.
"You may feel that poking fun at insanity is humorous, Mr. Malone, but
let me tell you--"

"It wasn't like that at all," Boyd said.

"And," Dr. Dowson continued in a somewhat louder voice, "wanting to
take Mr. Logan away from us. Mr. Logan is a very sick man, Mr. Malone.
He should be properly cared for."

"I promise we'll take good care of him," Malone said earnestly. The
Elizabethan clothes were fine outdoors, but in a heated room one had a
tendency to sweat.

"I take leave to doubt that," Dr. Dowson said, eyeing their costumes
pointedly.

"Miss Wilson here," Malone volunteered, "is a trained psychiatric
nurse."

Barbara, in her gown, stepped forward. "Dr. Dowson," she said, "let me
assure you that these costumes have their purpose. We--"

"Not only that," Malone said. "There are a group of trained men from
St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington who are going to take the best
of care of him." He said nothing whatever about Yucca Flats, or about
telepathy.

Why spread around information unnecessarily?

"But I don't understand," Dr. Dowson said. "What interest could the
FBI have in an insane man?"

"That's none of your business," Malone said. He reached inside his
fur-trimmed robe and, again suppressing a tendency to bow deeply,
withdrew an impressive-looking legal