ed to be funny," he said in the same flat, precise voice.

"It isn't funny," Malone said.

Fred sighed. "Then they're obviously lying," he said, "and that's all
there is to it. Why bother me with it?"

"Lying, Fred?" Malone said.

"Certainly," Fred said. He looked at the machinery with longing.

Malone took a breath. "How do you know?" he said.

Fred sighed. "It's perfectly obvious," he said in a patient tone.
"Since the State Department translator has no pig-Latin circuit, it
can't possibly be talking pig-Latin. I will admit that such a circuit
would be relatively easy to build, though it would have no utility as
far as I can see. Except, of course, for a joke." He paused. "Joke?"
he said, in a slightly uneasy tone.

"Sure," Malone said. "Joke."

Mitchell looked relieved. "Very well, then," he began. "Since--"

"Wait a minute," Malone said. "The pig-Latin is a joke. That's right.
But I'm not talking about the pig-Latin."

"You're not?" Mitchell asked, surprised.

"No," Malone said.

Mitchell frowned. "But you said--" he began.

"A joke," Malone said. "You were perfectly right. The pig-Latin is a
joke." He waited for Fred's expression to clear, and then added: "But
what I want to talk to you about isn't."

"It sounds very confused," Fred said after a pause. "Not at all the
sort of thing that--that usually goes on."

"You have no idea," Malone said. "It's about the political machines,
all right, but it isn't anything as simple as pig-Latin." He
explained, taking his time over it.

When he had finished, Fred was nodding his head slowly. "I see," he
said. "I understand just what you want me to do."

"Good," Malone said.

"I'll take a team over to the Senate Office Building," Fred said, "and
check the computer-secretaries there. That way, you see, I'll be able
to do a full running check on them without taking any one machine out
of operation for too long."

"Sure," Malone said.

"And it shouldn't take long," Fred went on, "to find out just what the
trouble is." He looked very confident.

"How long?" Malone asked.

Fred shrugged. "Oh," he said, "five or six days."

Malone repressed an impulse to scream. "Days?" he said. "I mean--well,
look, Fred, it's important. Very important. Can't you do the job any
faster?"

Fred gave a little sigh. "Checking and repairing all those machines,"
he said, "is an extremely complex job. Sometimes, Malone, I don't
think you realize quite how complex and how deli