which successful executives are noted which caused me to
pick this man in spite of his absurd ranting and illfavored appearance.
Not intuition really, but an ability to evaluate and classify
personalities instantly. I always had this faculty; it helped me in my
early experiences as a salesman and blossomed out when I entered my
proper field.

Anthony Preblesham--for that was his worldly name--did not disappoint my
judgment for he proved one of the most aggressive men I ever hired. The
Brother Paul hocuspocus, which he quickly dropped, had merely caught and
canalized an abounding energy that would otherwise have flowed aimlessly
in a stagnant world. In Consolidated Pemmican he found his true faith;
his zeal for our products proved as great if not greater than his former
hysteria for the salvation of mankind. It was no fault of his that the
expedition he led proved fruitless.

The men Tony Preblesham took with him were all Brother Pauls who--since
they disdained them--had not been told of material rewards but given the
impression they were furthering their fanatical creed. They built a camp
upon the Grass, or rather upon the snow which overlay the Grass, near
what had once been Springfield, Illinois. Digging down through the snow
to the weed, they discovered it to have lost most of its rubbery
qualities of resistance in dormancy, and cut with comparative ease more
than four tons which were transported with the greatest difficulty to
the Florida plant. Here, to anticipate, their work came to nothing, for
no practicable method was found for reducing the grass to a form in
which its nutritive elements could be economically extracted.

_61._ The secrecy surrounding the government expedition could not be
maintained and it was soon learned that what was planned was nothing
less than an attempt to burn great areas of the weed while in its
dormant state. All previous attempts to fire the Grass had been made
when the sap was running and it was thought that in its dryer condition
some measure of success might be obtained. The public instantly
translated possibility into probability and probability into virtual
certainty, their enthusiastic optimism making the winter more bearable.

The party proceeded not more than a couple of miles beyond the eastern
edge, dragging with them a flexible pipeline through which was pumped
fueloil, now priceless in the freezing cities. Methodically they sprayed
a square mile and set it afire, fe