The reluctant spy... Spying was repugnant to Mencken - even in wartime - but he had no alternative. He took the assignment. His objective was to attend a conference of Nazi scientists, researchers in germ warfare and poison gas, and report back to London. He was to pick up his orders in Venice. The nightmare, paranoid world of a spy was suddenly Mencken's world. He became a man split between self-respect and fear, conditioned by terror of the faceless men dedicated to his elimination. . .