en them than to have
our cities destroyed, our population wiped out, our descendants--if
any--born with six heads or a dozen arms as a result of radioactivity."

According to General Thario, for a while it was touchandgo whether the
President would yield to the men of vision or the others. But in the end
apprehension and calculation ordained that every effort must be made to
reinforce the defense of the West Coast--except the effective one.

Of course every dirigible was commandeered and work speeded up on those
under construction; troopships, heedless of their vulnerability, rushed
for the Panama Canal; while negotiations were opened with Mexico,
looking toward transporting divisions over its territory to a point
south of the weed.

While confusion and defeatism took as heavy a toll of the country's
spirit as an actual defeat on the battlefield, the Russians slowly
pushed their way inland and consolidated their positions. The American
units offered valiant resistance, but little by little they were driven
northward until a fairly fixed front was established south of San
Francisco from the ocean to the bay and a more fluid one from the bay to
the edge of the grass. Army men, like the public, were suspicious of the
enemy's apparent contentment with this line, for they reasoned it
presaged further landings to the north.

General Thario's jubilation contrasted with the common gloom. "At last
the blunderers have given me active duty. I have a brigade in the Third
Army--finest of all. Can't write exactly where I'm stationed, but it is
not far from a wellknown city noted for its altitude, located in a
mining state. Brigade is remarkably fit, considering, and the men are
rearing to go. Keep your ear open for some news--it won't be long...."

_44._ The news was of the heroic counterlandings. The entire fleet,
disdainful of possible submarine action, stood off from the rear of the
Russian positions, bombarding them for fortyeight hours preliminary to
landing marines who fought their way inland to recapture nearly half the
invaded territory. Simultaneously the army below San Francisco pushed
the Russians back and made contact at some points with the marines. The
enemy was reduced to a mere foothold.

But the whole operation proved no more than a rearguard action. As
General Thario wrote, "We are fighting on the wrong continent." Joe was
even broader and more emphatic. "It's a putup job," he complained, "to
keep costplus p