ds
worked night and day devising possible variants of the basic compound
and means of applying it under all conditions. It was a race between the
Grass and the conquerors of the Grass; there was no doubt as to the
outcome; the only question now was how far the Grass would get before it
was finally stopped.

The second experiment was carried out on the South Downs. The containers
were the same, the ceremonious interchange repeated, only the area
staked out covered about four times as much ground as the first. We
departed as before, leaving the meadow apparently unharmed, returning to
find the square dead and wasted.

Once more I urged her to turn the compound directly upon the Grass.
"What if it isnt perfected? What harm can it do? Maybe it's advanced
enough to halt the Grass even if it doesnt kill it."

She stabbed at her chest with the toothpick. "Isnt it horrible to live
in a world of intellectual sucklings? How can I explain what's going on?
I have a basic compound in the same sense ... in the same sense, let us
say, that I know iodine to be a poison. Yes, that will do. If I wish to
kill a man--some millionaire--and administer too little, far from acting
as a poison it will be positively beneficial. This is a miserably
oversimplified analogy--perhaps you will understand it."

I was extremely dissatisfied, knowing as I did the rapidly worsening
situation. The Grass was in the Iberian Peninsula, in Provence,
Burgundy, Lorraine, Champagne and Holland. The people were restive, no
longer appeased by the tentative promise of redemption through Miss
Francis' efforts. The BBC named a date for the first attack upon the
Grass, contradicted itself, said sensible men would understand these
matters couldnt be pinned down to hours and minutes. There were riots at
Clydeside and in South Wales and I feared the looting of my warehouses
in view of the terrible scarcity of food.

It wasnt only the immediate situation which was bad, but the longrange
one. Oil reserves in the United Kingdom were practically exhausted. So
were non-native metals. Vital machinery needed immediate replacement. As
soon as Miss Francis was ready to go into action the strain upon our
obsolescent technology and hungerweakened manpower would be crippling.

The general mood was not lightened by the clergy, professionally
gloating over approaching doom, nor by the speculations of the
scientists, who were now predicting an insect and aquatic world. Man,
they