A FRIEND OF MINE, an undergraduate I'll call Ralph, returned to Cambridge last week on an eventful HSA charter to find his suite destroyed by flooding and subsequent efforts at repair.

I should say right off that Ralph has never been a conspiracy zuff. He has seen the Zapruder film only once and most of his friends think of him as a level-headed sort of fellow. But as the hours slid past and his reserve books remained on a landing strip in San Diego, Ralph's mind began to wander. He took to peering stealthily over the dining hall checker's shoulder to see whether or not he had eaten dinner, he hummed Carpenters' songs quietly to himself, and he hadn't slept since a fitful doze twenty thousand feet above Providence. Worst, he believed he was on to some kind of new conspiracy.

"Nothing to do with assassinations," he whispered to me. "This is Plumbers-related."

"What plumbers?" I asked.

"No," he hissed. "Plumbers. Capital 'P'. Dirty tricks, CREEP, Dr. Fielding. You know?"

"What are you talking about, Ralph?"

"Krogh. Egil Krogh. Remember? I think he's here, at Harvard. They let him out of jail a long time ago."

"Yeah, I know," I said. "But I don't think he's bright enough to get into Harvard. Look, if you're getting into another nostalgia trip..."

"No, fool, he's working here, now." Ralph's eyes darted around us before he said, "Working for Stephen S.J. Hall."

None of this would have been worth reporting except for the document Ralph slipped into my pocket before slinking off. "It's a transcript," he said. "From Hall's office tape recorder--the conversation happened last October, I think..."

Egil: Listen, uh, one more thing. I've revised the plans for Operation Grindstone like you asked.

SJ: Hm?

Egil: You know, uh, Grindstone. Making life a little difficult for these [unintelligible].

SJ: Oh, right. Well, it had better be more cost-effective than your last one. The part with the Chem 20 notebooks was okay, and you've done a great job with the Food Services, but we don't have the manpower for the rest of it.

Egil: Right. Well, this one should suit you better. I thought [unintelligible] especially while they're on vacation.