of her own along that line.
She's followed through on this with me all the way but she came down
to Washington to meet me today and she says she's going to drag me off
when I'm through here."

Brogan smiled his famous smile. "Good girl, Margaret. If she's here
and has a leash on you, I know I don't have anything to worry about.
There's nothing I admire more than a woman who has a mind and uses it.
I'll tell you something else," he said, standing and permitting
Kessler to rise this time. "I was truly sorry about Eileen Bennett's
death on this plane, but Eileen was getting along like me. Sarah
Pollitt's was the really tragic case, to have accomplished so much so
young and with that fearful handicap! From childhood, too, wasn't it?"

[Illustration]

"Actually, she was about seventeen. Someone threw a firecracker in a
car in which she was riding, but she could see partially with one
eye."

Brogan nodded. "But a beautiful woman, for all that. And then to have
achieved so much. I understand nothing about chemistry but I know her
international repute. She had just become head of the chemistry
department at Wellesley, hadn't she?"

"Radcliffe."

Brogan laughed loudly. "I might have known I couldn't trip you up. But
tell me this," he added slyly, "did you know that Dr. Pollitt had once
been a good friend of Bergmann?"

"Our former Commie on the plane? Yes, as a matter of fact, we came
across that quite accidentally. You did a good job, senator."

"Well, you know we have some sources not generally accessible."

"Then you undoubtedly found out that though Sarah Pollitt and friend
Bergmann knew each other well at one time she dropped him like a hot
cake when he suggested she do a little undercover work for the
Commies. Their being on the same plane was the sheerest coincidence."

Brogan stood with his hand on the door with led to the corridor. He
nodded. "That was a little hard to take, wasn't it? We really thought
we had something there for a while." He sighed. "It's like the whole
thing, Bob, irrational and unexplainable. And believe me, I hope I
haven't sounded critical of the job you did. I hope we can call on you
whenever we need really expert advice?"

"Of course, senator, though I don't feel much like an expert on
anything right now."

"You did your best, Bob." He patted him on the shoulder in farewell.

* * * * *

Kessler walked down a long marble corridor to a rotunda. His