a newspaperman do what he really didn't want to do. The very
fact that the government was so eager to kill the story made every
newsman worthy of his salt all the more eager to break the paper-thin
shell around the meaty yolk. By noon, the time we landed for fuel,
every Washington correspondent for every news service had a little
different story for his boss, the White House was practically besieged
at the mere rumor that the President was to issue a statement, and the
State Department was going quietly mad.

"Not so quietly, at that," the Old Man said sourly. "One hour straight
I stayed on that telephone. One hour straight I talked to one bunch of
raving maniacs, and all the common sense I heard would go into your
left eye."

By that time his temper had cooled below melting, and we were again on
reasonably good terms. I was curious to know just who the Old Man had
talked to.

He grunted. "Just about everyone in Washington with any authority at
all. No one with any intelligence."

I could appreciate that. I have a very low opinion of anyone who stays
in Washington any longer than necessary.

I asked him, "We're apparently heading back there. Why? Where were we
going when they stopped us?"

He wasn't sure. "I wanted to keep on going," he said, "and get you out
of the country. I still think that would have been best. There was to
be a cruiser waiting at Bremerton for a shakedown cruise. But whoever
is running all this--and I don't think that the President has thought
too much about it--wants us to get back to Washington for another
conference."

* * * * *

"Another meeting?" I was disgusted. Washington political rashes
manifest themselves most often by the consistent eruption of
conferences in which nothing is said, nothing decided, nothing done.
"What does who think what?"

He blinked, and then smiled. "I couldn't say. I've been in this game
only twenty years. At any rate, you can see who's worried."

I didn't see, exactly.

"No?" He was amused. "Don't you remember the discussion we had about
who was going to watch the watchers? Now that there's been a leak, the
Army is going to blame the Navy, the Navy is going to blame the FBI,
and I take punishment from all three." He sighed. "My department
seems, invariably, to be in the middle."

I let it go at that. I didn't have the heart to remind him that a good
portion of the trouble and friction this country has had in its
histor