ou find out?" Johnny asked, but knew the answer at once.
Jo-Anne was a roommate of one of the Bureau Secretaries. It was how
Johnny had met her.

"You know how I found out, Snowman. Well, that's tough luck, kiddo. But
tell me, does that mean the field is wide open? I always thought your
gal-friend--your _ex_-gal-friend--had the cutest pair of--"

"I have nothing to do with whether the field is open or not open, I'm
afraid."

"Well, don't be. Afraid, I mean," Harry Bettis advised jovially. "If the
gal could make you pull a boner like that, you're better off without
her. But I forgot to ask Maxine: can I have little Jo-Anne's phone
number? Huh, boy?"

Before Johnny could answer, the three-girl staff of secretaries entered
the small office. Entered--and stared.

"That's all right, girls," Harry Bettis said. "You didn't have to follow
me in here. I'd have been right out."

But they weren't staring at Harry Bettis. They were staring at Johnny.
Their mouths had flapped open, their eyes were big and round. Johnny
didn't, but Harry Bettis knew that look on a girl's face. Without any
trouble at all, Johnny could have made any of those girls, right there,
right then, without even trying.

They gawked and gawked. One of them pointed at the window. The others
tried to, but their hands were trembling.

The one who was pointing squawked: "Look!"

The second one said, "Out the window!"

The third one said, "Will you!"

Outside the window on the twenty-fifth of July it was snowing.

* * * * *

It was an hour later. Telephones were ringing. Long-distance calls from
all over the country now that the ticker had gone out with the
incredible fact that it was snowing in the Northeast in July. Most of
the calls, though, were from Washington. Chief Botts disconnected the
PBX and walked in a dazed, staggering fashion to Johnny, smiling weakly
and saying:

"Sloman, I misjudged you. Genius, right here, right now, in this office,
and we never knew it. Sloman, I have to admit I was wrong about you. But
how did you know? How did you ever know?"

"Hell's bells," Harry Bettis said before Johnny could say it was all a
mistake. "That's easy, Chief. Anyone knows that _all_ rain starts out as
snow. It's got to. You see, the droplets of moisture in the cold upper
regions of a cloud condense around dust particles because the air up
there is too cold to hold them as vapor. Since it's below freezing, snow
is