on the ship, anyway they are all still here so
what does it matter? And M'Clare would not have picked people who were
going to funk it, after all."

My chair gets a kick on the ankle which I suppose was meant for B; Eru
is six foot five but even his legs do not quite reach; he is the only
one of us facing the door.

M'Clare has somehow shed his weariness; he looks stern but fresh as a
daisy. There are four with him; Ram and Peter looking serious, one
stranger in Evercleans looking determined to enjoy the party and
another in uniform looking as though nothing would make him.

M'Clare introduces the strangers as Colonel Delano-Smith and Mr.
Yardo. They all sit down at the other end of the table; then he frowns
at us and begins like this:

"Miss Laydon is mistaken. You were not selected on any such grounds as
she suggests. I may say that I was astonished at the readiness with
which you all engaged yourselves to take part in such a desperate
gamble; and, seeing that for the last four years I have been trying to
persuade you that it is worth while, before making a decision of any
importance, to spend a certain amount of thought on it, I was
discouraged as well."

Oh.

"The criterion upon which you were selected was a very simple one. As
I told you, you were picked not by me but by a computer; the one in
the College Office which registers such information as your home
addresses and present whereabouts. You are simply that section of the
class which could be picked up without attracting attention, because
you all happened to be on holiday by yourselves or with other members
of the class; and because your nearest relatives are not on Earth at
present."

Oh, well.

All of us can see M'Clare is doing a job of deflation on us for
reasons of his own, but it works for all that.

He now seems to feel the job is complete and relaxes a bit.

"I was interested to see that you all, without exception, hit on
variations of the same idea. It is of course the obvious way to deal
with the problem." He smiles at us suddenly and I get mad at myself
because I know he is following the rules for introducing a desired
state of mind, but I am responding as meant. "I'll read you the most
succinct expression of it; you may be able to guess the author."

Business with bits of paper.

"Here it is. I quote: 'Drag in some outsider looks like he is going
for both sides; they will gang up on him.'"

Yells of laughter and shouts of "Lizzie