The Blunderer

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MARIUS Baum looked at himself in the mirror with distaste. He often disliked himself—and never more than when he tried to "loosen up" or "be human" as his well-wishers were always urging he do.

The sight in the mirror would have repelled an even less self-critical man than Marius Baum. For his stocky form was encased in an emerald silk ballet-suit that had once clothed a dancer who portrayed Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.

From the waist dangled a "ray-gun"—actually a child's toy, a flashlight in the form of a pistol. A scarlet cape topped off the outfit. Out of this gaudery rose the head of Marius Baum—an owlish-looking head with a swarthy skin, a bush of tightly-curled black hair and a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. Marius winced.

Baum was dressed as the "man of the future" because Violet Rogers had told him she would go with him to the Hallowe'en party given by the engineers of the Laboratories only if he would go in costume. Much as he hated the idea of dressing up he had given in when confronted with this bald choice—no costume, no Violet.

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