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thirt
y followers of the Guardians obsessively carried out the departure
instructions their extra-planetary advisors had provided.  They
memorized the passwords that would get them through saucer
security.  ("I left my hat at home."  "What is your question?" and "I am
my own porter.")  They took all the metal out of their clothes.  Some
gave away their personal belongings, quit their jobs or abandoned their
college classes.  And they got ready to say good-bye to the earthly life
they had known.
Neighbors and relatives did not always look kindly on these
activities.  Dr. Armstrong's sister filed a lawsuit to have his children
taken away.  He was fired from the college health service.  Neighbors
and family members of his followers threatened to have the
space-crazed believers clapped into an asylum.  But few of the
Guardians' little flock were deterred.  After all, their very survival
depended on faithfully following extra-terrestrial orders.
When the day of the great flood arrived, reporters appeared to
interview the followers.  Not anxious to share the good fortune of their
imminent survival, the believers in The Guardians preferred to keep
the wisdom that could save their fellow  earthlings to themselves.  So
they turned away journalists with a simple "No comment."
As the critical hour drew nigh, the believers shooed a cluster of
reporters away from Dr. Armstrong's house and made ready for their
midnight escape from this doomed earth.  They donned the slashed
clothing from which they had ripped zippers, fasteners, eyelets, and
every other metal device.  The men held up their pants with ropes.
Gathered in the living room, the flock received last minute instructions
from the Guardians through the automatic scribbling of Mrs. Keech
and methodically drilled the use of its passwords, chanting in unison
phrases like "I am my own porter, I am my own pointer."
As midnight approached, the followers became silent.  They sat
with their coats in their laps, holding themselves so still that the air
seemed hammered by the ticking of the room's two clocks.  One
minute before the saucer was due to arrive, Mrs. Keech exclaimed
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