As Al walked down the stairs, their German housekeeper, Evi, was coming down the long front hallway, tying her robe. “Who is that, ringing and ringing?” she asked grumpily. She had been with the family so long that she felt perfectly free to express her feelings.

“It’s business, Evi,” Al said. “I’ll get it.”

As she turned and walked back down the hall toward her room, she was muttering to herself in German.

“I’m sorry,” Al called after her.

Then he turned and opened the door. “Come in, General. I’m very glad to see you. Flight up go all right?”

“Thank you, sir. Yeah, no problem. But, at the risk of seeming impertinent, what in blue blazes is going on up here?”

“Long story, Archie. But come on, let’s sit down where we can talk.” Al led the way to the living room and turned on two lamps. “Make yourself comfortable. Do you want something to drink?”

“A little soda with lime would be great—thanks.”

Al returned a few minutes later with lime and soda for both of them. He handed Archie his drink, sat down across from him, and said, “Archie, what I’m going to tell you is absolutely top secret. Can I trust your silence?”

“You know that, sir, or you wouldn’t have asked me to come up here at this unholy hour.”

“That’s right, Archie. Well, here’s the story,” Al Augustus began. “As you know, we had one president commit suicide. The next was killed by a snake bite, and then the man who left the cobra on the president’s desk was murdered. They say he committed suicide, but don’t you believe it. Now, we’ve got this ex-campus radical in the White House, and if you heard the speech tonight, you know he’s got some mighty big plans.

“Tonight, when we met after the telecast, Beaulieu fired the whole cabinet, except Treasury Secretary James Wong and me. In his speech, he indicated he planned to turn our entire military over to some utopian outfit called the Union for Peace. Archie, I don’t know about you, but it sure looks and sounds to me a lot like Hitler, all over again.”

“Exactly,” said Gladstone. “Except this time it’s happening in America and not Germany.” Archie Gladstone rolled the cut-glass goblet between his hands. “I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, Mr. Secretary. I did see the speech, but I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on. There was something weird—almost hypnotic—about that man. But from what I hear, not a lot of people would agree with me on that.”