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“I vote yes The resolution is passed I will so inform the Controller We will observe the usual precautions and leave at twenty-entlemen”

Two hours and forty-five minutes later the cabin was deserted A crew of experts carrying kerosene moved in and set the cabin on fire, the red flary winds

When the fire brigade fro left to see but the s snow

The assistant to the fire chief approached the ashes, bent down, and sniffed “Kerosene,” he said “Arson”

The fire chief was staring at the ruins, a puzzled expression on his face “That’s strange,” he muttered

“What?”

“I was hunting in these woods last week There was no cabin”

Chapter One

Stanton Rogers was destined to be President of the United States He was a charis public, and backed by powerful friends Unfortunately for Rogers, his libido got in the way of his career

It was not that Stanton Rogers fancied himself a Casanova On the contrary, until that one fateful bedroom escapade he had been a h he had had aiven another woht

There was a second, perhaps greater irony: Stanton Rogers’ wife, Elizabeth, was social, beautiful, and intelligent, arld the two of the, whereas Barbara, the woers fell in love with, and eventually married after a much headlined divorce, was five years older than Stanton, pleasant-faced rather than pretty, and see in common with him Stanton was athletic; Barbara hated all forarious; Barbara preferred to be alone with her husband, or to entertain sest surprise was the political differences Stanton was a liberal, while Barbara was an archconservative

Paul Ellison, Stanton’s closest friend, had said, “You must be out of your mind, chum! You and Liz are the perfectto do to your career?”

Stanton Rogers had replied tightly, “Back off, Paul I’es in this country end in divorce It won’t do anything”

Rogers had proved to be a poor prophet The press kept the story of the bitterly fought divorce alive as long as they could, and the gossip papers played it up as luridly as possible, with pictures of Stanton Rogers’ love nest and stories of secret ers’ powerful political friends found a nehite knight to champion: Paul Ellison

Ellison was a sound choice While he had neither Stanton ]Rogers’ good looks nor his charisround He was short in stature, with regular, even features and candid blue eyes He had been happily nate

Stanton Rogers and Paul Ellison had grown up together in New York Their fa summer homes in Southampton They were, in the same class, first at Yale and later at Harvard Law School Paul Ellison did well, but it was Stanton Rogers as the star pupil Once he was out of law school, Stanton Rogers’ political star began rising meteorically, and if he was the comet, Paul Ellison was the tail

The divorce changed everything It was now Stanton Rogers who beca to the presidency took alhly popular, articulate Senator He fought against waste in governton bureaucracy He was a populist, and believed in international detente When he was finally elected President of the United States, his first appointn affairs adviser

MAMEWL McLuhan’s theory that television would turn the world into a global village had becouration of the forty-second President of the United States was carried by satellite to more than one hundred and ninety countries