among themselves,
evidently to determine whether this equivocal apology was to be
accepted. Apparently it was, for Dr Johnson now asked loftily and with
an abstracted air, as though he already knew the answer and considered
it beneath notice, "What was this magic formula you caused to be put on
the grass?"

Malicious spirits averred that Dickie Johnson had flunked out of
agricultural school, had an obscure European diploma, and that his fame
as a professor at Creighton University was based on the gleaming granite
and stainless steel building dedicated to research in agronomy which
bore the legend "Johnson Foundation" over the entrance. No one hearing
him pronounce "magic formula" putting into the word all the contempt of
the scientist for the quack, could ever put credence in the base
slander. "What was this 'magic formula' you caused to be put on the
grass?" he repeated.

Miss Francis reeled off a list of elements so swiftly I'm sure no one
but the stenographer caught them all. I know I didnt get more than half,
though I was sitting less than five feet from her. "Magnesium," she
stated, "iodine, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, potash, sulphur,
oxygen ..."

Dr Johnson seemed to have known its composition since grammarschool
days. Senator Jones asked, "And what effect did you expect this
extraordinary conglomeration to have?"

She repeated what she had told me at first and the deductions she had
made since. Dr Johnson smiled. "A true Man of Science," he stated, "one
who has labored for years to acquire those degrees you affect to
despise, would have been trained in selfless devotion to the service of
mankind, would never have made whatever gross error your ignorance,
heightened by projection into a sphere for which you are probably
biologically unfitted--though this is perhaps controversial--has
betrayed you into. For had you freely shared your work with colleagues
they would have been able to correct your mistakes and this catastrophe
brought on by selfish greed--a catastrophe which has already cost
millions--would not have occurred."

The entire committee, including Dr Johnson himself, seemed pleased with
this indictment. Attorney General Smith looked inquiringly at the
witness as though inviting her to answer _that_ if she could. Miss
Francis evidently took the invitation literally, for she addressed
herself directly to Dr Johnson.

"I do not know, Doctor, where these beautiful and eminently sensible
ide