_Although the Masquerade itself, as a necessary protection against
non-telepaths, was not fully formulated until the late years of the
Seventeenth Century, groups of telepaths-in-hiding existed long
before that date. Whether such groups were the results of natural
mutations, or whether they came into being due to some other cause,
has not yet been fully determined, but that a group did exist in
the district of Offenburg, in what is now Prussia, we are quite
sure. The activities of the group appear to have begun,
approximately, in the year 1594, but it was not until eleven years
after that date that they achieved a signal triumph, the first and
perhaps the last of its kind until the dissolution of the
Masquerade in 2103._
--Excerpt from "A Short History of the Masquerade," by A. Milge, Crystal
704-54-368, Produced 2440.
Jonas came over the hill whistling as if he had not a care in the
world--which was not even approximately true, he reflected happily. The
state of complete and utter quiet was both foreign and slightly
repugnant to him; he was never more pleased than when he had a job in
hand, a job that involved a slight and unavoidable risk.
This time, of course, the risk was more than slight. Why, he thought
happily, it was even possible for him to get killed, and most painfully,
too! With a great deal of pleasure, he stood for a second at the crest
of the hill, his hands on his hips, looking down at the town of Speyer
as it baked in the May afternoon sunlight.
[Illustration]
_"Behold the Tortoise: He maketh no progress unless he sticketh out
his neck." But he maketh very little progress unless he pick the
right time and place to "sticketh out his neck"--which can be quite
a sticky problem for a man in a medieval culture!_