gainst the
transportation of any specimens and even stricter ones barring them from
every foreign country made experiment in our main research laboratories
infeasible; but we still maintained a skeleton staff in our Jacksonville
plant and I had come to arrange the collection of a large enough sample
for them to get to work in earnest. It was a tricky business and I had
no one beside myself whom I could trust to undertake it except General
Thario, and he was fully occupied.

In addition to being illegal it also promised little profit, for while
dislocation of the normal foodsupply made the United States our main
market for concentrates, American currency had fallen so low--the franc
stood at $5, the pound sterling at $250--it was hardly worthwhile to
import our products. Of course, as a good citizen, I didnt send American
money abroad, content to purchase Rembrandts, Botticellis, Titians or El
Grecos; or when I couldnt find masterpieces holding a stable price on
the world market, to change my dollars into some of the gold from Fort
Knox, now only a useless bulk of heavy metal.

My first thought was Miss Francis. Though she had more or less dropped
from public sight, my staff had ascertained she was living in a small
South Carolina town. My telegrams remaining unanswered, there was
nothing for me to do but undertake a trip there.

Despite strict instructions my planes had not been kept in proper
condition and I had great difficulty getting mechanics to service them.
There were plenty of skilled men unemployed and though they were not
eager to earn dollars they were willing to work for other rewards. But
the pervading atmosphere of tension and anxiety made concentration
difficult; they bungled out of impatience, committed stupidities they
would normally be incapable of; they quit without cause, flew into rages
at the machines, the tools, their fellows, fate, at or without the
slightest provocation.

My pilot was surly and hilarious by turn and I suspected him of
drinking, which didnt add to my confidence in our safety. We flew low
over railroadtracks stretching an empty length to the horizon, over
smokeless factorychimneys, airports whose runways were broken and whose
landinglights were dark. The land was green and rich, the industrial
life imposed upon it till yesterday had vanished, leaving behind it the
bleaching skeleton of its being.

The field upon which we came down seemed in slightly better repair than
others