rancisco--these
and other great cities sometimes forget that they are mere ganglia on
the financial and commercial nervous system. The heart is Washington,
and, Congress to the contrary notwithstanding, the heart of that heart
is not the domed building at the head of Pennsylvania Avenue, but an
American home. A simple, gracious mansion, standing in quiet dignity
and whiteness above its velvet lawns.

It is the White House that draws most strongly at the interest and
curiosity of the homely, common throng that visits the capital.

But there were no casual visitors at the White House on the seventh of
September. Certain Senators, even, were denied admittance. The
President was seeing only the members of the Cabinet and some few
others.

It is given to a Secret Service operative, in his time, to play many
parts. But even a versatile actor might pause at impersonating a
President. Robert Delamater was acting the role with never a fumble.
He sat, this new Robert Delamater, so startlingly like the Chief
Executive, in the chair by a flat top desk. And he worked diligently
at a mass of correspondence.

Secretaries came and went; files were brought. Occasionally he replied
to a telephone call--or perhaps called someone. It would be hard to
say which happened, for no telephone bells rang.

On the desk was a schedule that Delamater consulted. So much time for
correspondence--so many minutes for a conference with this or that
official, men who were warned to play up to this new Chief Executive
as if the life of their real President were at stake.

* * * * *

To any observer the busy routine of the morning must have passed with
never a break. And there was an observer, as Delamater knew. He had
wondered if the mystic ray might carry electrons that would prove its
presence. And now he knew.

The Chief of the U. S. Secret Service had come for a consultation with
the President. And whatever lingering doubts may have stifled his
reluctant imagination were dispelled when the figure at the desk
opened a drawer.

"Notice this," he told the Chief as he appeared to search for a paper
in the desk. "An electroscope; I put it in here last night. It is
discharging. The ray has been on since nine-thirty. No current to
electrocute me--just a penetrating ray."

He returned the paper to the drawer and closed it.

"So that is that," he said, and picked up a document to which he
called the visitor's attent