Two men in their thirties wearing dark suits and silk ties with transverse stripes came forward at their entry. One was very tall and very thin with ears at right angles to his skull. The other was just a man.
'Captain Leonard, may I introduce my assistants? Dr. Minshull'-the very tall one-'and Mr. Mann'-the one who was just a man.
Leonard shook hands with each in turn. Minshull kept his gaze level, so that it went over the top of Leonard's head. Mann smiled and nodded.
'Now,' said Dr. Best, 'what's it to be? Sherry or Martini?'
'Sherry, please,' said Leonard.
'Manzanilla, fino or amontillado?'
'Amontillado, please.'
'Pedro Domecq or Harvey's?'
'Harvey's, please.'
'A lot or a little?'
'A little, please.'
Dr. Best gave Leonard what was certainly a little, reaching as it did less than halfway up a cylindrical glass with a bore of about an inch. He gave himself what was presumably a lot, something like two-thirds of a tumbler. He looked at the glasses in the hands of Minshull and Mann, each of which held some liquor, and said he saw that they were all right.
'Did you enjoy your tour, Captain Leonard?' asked Mann pleasantly.
'It was most interesting.'
A high, dry, crooning laugh broke from Minshull and went on for some seconds.
'Are you perhaps professionally concerned in these matters?' continued Mann, raising his voice slightly. 'I know the Army's very high-powered these days on psychological warfare and so forth.'
Leonard made his prepared reply to this question, which for the last hour and a half he had been vainly expecting Dr. Best to ask. 'I am involved to some extent. We take an interest in probing the minds of prisoners and safeguarding our own people against it. But my main job is Security. I expect you've heard there are some rather secret goings-on over at the camp. I'm responsible for seeing that the wrong people don't get to hear about them.'
'And who would those wrong people be, Captain?' asked Dr. Best.
'Ultimately, of course, the Russian or Chinese Communists.'
'Not immediately. That's to say you don't believe there are actual Russians and Chinese hanging about the place in disguise.'
'No, I don't. But I know there's at least one enemy agent in the area.'
'And what sort of person might he be, do you suppose?'
'He might well be highly respectable,' said Leonard. 'Somebody widely known and accepted in the neighborhood. Holding the sort of position that enables him to move about freely and talk to anyone he may come across. Perhaps with a profession that enables him to ask all sorts of questions without arousing suspicion.'
'Somebody like me, do you mean?'
'Yes. He might easily be somebody very like you.'
There was a loud sucking sound as Minshull drained his glass. Dr. Best turned to him and Mann, rubbing his hands together excitedly.
'Isn't that wonderful, gentlemen? Isn't that wonderful?'
'I don't see anything very wonderful about it, sir,' said Mann. 'Captain Leonard's reasoning strikes me as perfectly sound, speaking as a complete layman in his field. And even if we failed to follow his argument, we'd have to give him credit for knowing what he's about.'
Dr. Best grew rigid. 'Haven't I always been good to you, Mann?' he asked.
'I don't know what you mean, sir.'
'Don't you think that, if you were being rational, you'd admit that the presence of a guest makes this an unsuitable moment to start uncovering your hidden aggressions?'
'I wasn't being aggressive, I assure you. I was simply giving an opinion.'
'We won't pursue the matter for the time being. Let's just say that it's surprising to find somebody of your qualifications evidently failing to identify one of the best-known types of proemial persecution- fantasy.'
'But, Dr. Best,' said Mann, flushing, 'Captain Leonard is a Security officer. It's his business to look for spies. And who's behaving unsuitably in front of a guest now, may I ask?'
This defiance did not act as Leonard had expected and increase Dr. Best's annoyance. Instead, he turned to Minshull and said in a jesting tone,
'Abercrombie and Kraft, July 1963.'
Minshull gave another laugh, this time with a keening rather than a crooning effect. Leonard looked wordlessly at Mann, whose flush had deepened.
