display of dresses. The Queen came scurrying over, too,
through the silent and jostling Russian crowds.

"I was suggesting a restaurant," Malone said.

"Best idea anybody's had all day," Lou said. Her Majesty graciously
consented to agree, and Petkoff beamed like the rising sun.

"My friends," he said. "My very fine friends--although you are
capitalistic bourgeois intellectuals, thrown aside by the path of
progress--in Moskva we have the finest restaurants in all the world."

"How about ... oh, Leningrad?" Malone said in a low voice.

"In Leningrad," Petkoff admitted, "the restaurants are better. But in
Moskva, the restaurants are very good indeed. Much better than one
might expect, if one knows Leningrad."

"Well," Malone said, "I suppose we've just got to put up with Moscow."

They went back to the corner, and hailed the long, black,
sleek-looking limousine that had brought them in from the airport. The
two silent men in the front seat of the gleaming Volga sedan were
waiting patiently. Malone, Her Majesty and Lou got into the back,
Petkoff in front. The two men were as still as statues--and rather
unpleasant-looking statues, Malone thought--until Petkoff snapped
something in Russian. Then one of them, at the wheel, said: _"Da,
Tovarishch."_

The car started down the Moscow streets.

Her Majesty was silent and somewhat abstracted during the ride, just
as she had been during the entire trip so far. She was, Malone knew,
prying into every mind she could touch. He smiled inwardly when he
thought about that.

The MVD, all unbeknownst to itself, was busily carrying around and
protecting the single most dangerous spy in Moscow.

Nobody else spoke, either, until the car was moving along at a good
clip. Petkoff began some small talk then, but it wasn't very
interesting until he finally managed to edge it around to the subject
he really wanted to talk about.

"By the way, Mr. Malone," he said, in a voice that sounded as if
Petkoff were trying to establish an offhand manner, and not succeeding
in the least. "It was thoughtful, very thoughtful, of American
government, to return to us those men. Very kind."

Malone's expression conveyed nothing but the sheerest good will.
"Well, you know how it is," he said. "Anything we can do to preserve
peace and amity between our countries--we'll do it. You know that.
Getting along, coexistence, that sort of thing. Oh, we're glad to
oblige."

"I am sure," Petkoff said darkly