the story. You're going to be in on it eventually, and I
thought you'd prefer getting in on it early."

Duran had intended quite bluntly to explain that he had more important
business. But there was something compelling about the man's
apparently ingenuous urgency that caused the senator to change his
mind.

"Okay, Loeffler. I'll be right over."

He broke the contact and told Woodvale to dial his home number.

"Ernie, this is Dad," he said at the sound of his younger son's voice.
"Tell Mother I'm going to stop off at the Attorney General's
office--that's right--but that I'll be home in plenty of time to get
ready for the dinner. Got that? That's right. How's school? Something
wrong? Okay, son, I'll see you later."

Ernie had said that everything was all right, but with an uneasiness
in the way he spoke. Grades, maybe, Duran thought. The boy had been
doing pretty well, almost as well as Roger, but was showing the
inevitable adolescent ramifications of interest. Duran found himself
musing briefly upon his own youthful extra-curricular forays up the
tree of knowledge and sighed.

"Go to the capitol building, Jack," he said.

"Which port should I use, sir?" the younger man asked.

"The official one," Duran told him. This was Loeffler's idea.

* * * * *

The senator was surprised to find one of the Attorney General's
harried-looking secretaries working late. She glanced up from her
typewriter and gave him an equivocal smile of recognition.

"He's expecting you, Mr. Senator," she said, nodding toward the inner
office. "Go right in."

Sigmund Loeffler was not alone. But the two other visitors were paled
by the aura of importance which emanated from the large black-haired
man behind the desk. He rose grandly at Duran's entrance, and without
bothering to shake hands proceeded with introductions.

"Fritz Ambly, Senator Vance Duran. Fritz," he explained, "is chairman
of the state Youth Welfare Board."

Duran took the thin hand which the other extended to him and noted the
concern on the man's slim freckled face. His features were
appropriately almost those of a child, but of a worried child.

"And Bob Duff, Senator Duran," Loeffler went on. "Bob is head of our
Civil Defense now."

The second man was, in contrast, short and homely, but not without a
touch of the other's anxiety.

"Well, gentlemen, you're welcome to stay if you wish," the Attorney
General told them. "I'll have to