About four weeks after I took the Vow, I had become so marooned in the repetitions of Raymond James Burns’s course in World Communism that I made the mistake of yawning in class.

“Hubbard, am I boring you?” Ray Jim asked.

“No, sir.”

“I’d like to hear you repeat what I’ve just said.”

I could feel my father’s temper stir in me. “Look, Mr. Burns,” I said, “I’m not bored. I get it. I know the Communists are treacherous, and double-dealing, and use agents provocateurs to try to subvert our labor unions and work double time to befuddle world opinion. I know they have millions of men in their armies getting ready for world domination, but I have to wonder one thing ... ”