eturned the square was clean of all growth, as though scraped
with a sharp knife. Only traces of powdery dust, not yet scattered by a
breeze, lay here and there. I was jubilant, but Miss Francis affected an
air of contempt. "Ive proved nothing I didnt know before, merely
confirmed the powers of the deterrent--under optimum conditions. It has
killed ordinary grass and some miscellaneous weeds--and that's all I can
say so far. What it will do to inoculated _Cynodon dactylon_ I have no
more idea than you."

"But youre going to try it on the Grass immediately?"

"No, I'm not," she answered shortly.

"Why not?"

"Weener, either leave these things in my hands or else go do them
yourself. You annoy me."

I was not to be put off in so cavalier a manner and after we parted I
sent for one of her assistants and ordered him to load a plane with some
of the cylinders and fly to the Continent for the purpose of using the
stuff directly against the Grass. When he protested such a test would be
quite useless and he could not bring himself to such disloyalty to his
"chief," as he quaintly called Miss Francis, I had to threaten him with
instant discharge and blacklist before he came to his senses. I'm sorry
to say he turned out to be a completely unreliable young man, for the
plane and its crew were never heard from again--a loss I felt deeply,
for planes were becoming scarce in England.

_94._ As a matter of fact everything, except illegal entrants who
continued to evade the authorities, was becoming scarce in England now.
The stocks of petroleum, acquired from the last untouched wells and
refineries and hoarded so zealously, had been limited by the storage
space available. We had a tremendous amount of food on hand, yet with
our abnormally swollen population and the constant knowledge that the
British Isles were not agriculturally selfsufficient, wartime rationing
of the utmost stringency was resorted to. The people accepted their
hardships, lightened by the hope given by Miss Francis' work--in turn
made possible only by me.

Though I chafed at her procrastination and forced myself to swallow her
incivilities, I put my personal reactions aside and with hardly an
exception turned over my entire scientific resources to Miss Francis,
making all my research laboratories subordinate to her, subject only to
a prudent check, exercised by a governing board of practical
businessmen. The government cooperated wholeheartedly and thousan