ation, didnt differ from labors observable any time a street was
repaired or a foundation laid, I saw no point in watching, hour after
hour. I thought Gootes' persistence less a devotion to duty than the
idle curiosity which makes grown men gape at a steamshovel.

My hints being lost on him, I ascertained the hour they expected to be
finished and went home. Excitement or no excitement, I saw no reason to
abandon all routine. My forethought was proven when I returned refreshed
in midmorning as the last shovelfuls of dirt came from the tunnel and
the explosive charges were hurried to their place.

There was reason for haste. While the tunneling had been going on, all
the grassfighting activity had ceased, for the militia had ordered
weedburners, reapers, bulldozers and the rest off the scene. The weed,
unhampered for the first time since Mrs Dinkman attacked it with her
lawnmower, responded by growing and growing until more and more
guardsmen had to be detached to the duty of keeping it back from the
excavation--by the very means they had scorned so recently. Even their
most frantic efforts could not prevent the grass from sending its most
advanced tendrils down into the gaping hole where the wires were being
laid to detonate the charge.

There was so much dashing to and fro, so many orders relayed, so many
dispatches delivered that I thought I might have been witnessing an
outofdate Civilwar play instead of a peacetime action of the California
National Guard. Captain Eltwiss--I kept wondering where I'd heard the
name--was constantly being interrupted in what was apparently a very
friendly conversation with Gootes by the arrival of officiallooking
envelopes which he immediately stuffed into his pocket with every
indication of vexation. "Silly old fools," he muttered, each time the
incident happened.

Quick inspections made, plans checked, an order was rasped to clear the
vicinity. Gootes' agonized protest that he had to report the occasion
for the _Intelligencer_'s readers was ignored. "Can't start making
exceptions," explained Captain Eltwiss. Everyone--workingpress, militia,
sightseers and all, had to move back a couple of blocks where
intervening trees and houses cut us off from any view of the green hill.

"This is terrible," exclaimed Gootes frantically. "Tragic. Howll I live
it down? Howm I going to face W R? Godlike wrath. 'What poolhall were
you dozing in, Gootes? Asleep on your bloody feet, ay, somnambulistic