[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding ScienceFiction May 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence thatthe U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor typographicalerrors have been corrected without note.]
WIZARD.
By Larry M. Harris
Although the Masquerade itself, asa necessary protection against non-telepaths,was not fully formulateduntil the late years of the SeventeenthCentury, groups of telepaths-in-hidingexisted long before that date.Whether such groups were the resultsof natural mutations, or whetherthey came into being due to someother cause, has not yet been fullydetermined, but that a group did existin the district of Offenburg, in whatis now Prussia, we are quite sure.The activities of the group appear tohave begun, approximately, in theyear 1594, but it was not until elevenyears after that date that they achieveda signal triumph, the first andperhaps the last of its kind until thedissolution of the Masquerade in2103.
—Excerpt from "A Short Historyof the Masquerade," by A. Milge,Crystal 704-54-368, Produced 2440.
onas came over the hillwhistling as if he hadnot a care in the world—whichwas not evenapproximately true, hereflected happily. The state of completeand utter quiet was both foreignand slightly repugnant to him; hewas never more pleased than whenhe had a job in hand, a job that involveda slight and unavoidable risk.
This time, of course, the risk wasmore than slight. Why, he thoughthappily, it was even possible for himto get killed, and most painfully, too!With a great deal of pleasure, hestood for a second at the crest of thehill, his hands on his hips, lookingdown at the town of Speyer as itbaked in the May afternoon sunlight.
"Behold the Tortoise: He makethno progress unless he sticketh outhis neck." But he maketh verylittle progress unless he pick theright time and place to "stickethout his neck"—which canbe quite a sticky problem fora man in a medieval culture!
Illustrated by Schoenherr
Jonas did not, in spite of his pose,look like the typical hero of folktale or scribe's tome; he was notseven feet tall, for instance, nor didhe have a handsome, lovesome facewith flashing blue eyes, or a broad-shouldered,narrow-waisted marvel ofa figure. He was, instead, somewhatshorter than the average of men inEurope in 1605 and for some timethereafter. He had small, almost hiddeneyes that seemed to see a greatdeal, but failed completely to makea fuss about the fact. And while hisfigure was just a trifle dumpy, hisface completed the rhyme by beingextraordinarily lumpy. The nose, asa matter of strict truth, was hard todistinguish from the other contusions,swellings and marks that covered thehead.
Nor, of course, did he carry thesword of a great hero, or a noble.Jonas had no von to stick on hisname, and he had never thought itworth his while to claim one andaccept the tiny risk of disclosure.After all, a noble was only a manlike other men.
And, besides, Jonas knew perfectlywell that he had no need of a sword.
His adventures, too, were a littleout of the common run of tales. Jonashad, he thought regretfully, few duelsto look forward to, and he had evenf