_69._ About the same time I also received a letter which somehow got
through the protective screening of my secretaries:
"Albert Weener,
Savoy Hotel,
Thames Embankment, WC1.
"Sir:
You may recall making an offer I considered premature. It is now no
longer so. I am at home afternoons from 1 until 6 at 14, Little Bow
Street, EC3 (3rd floor, rear).
Josephine Spencer Francis"
In spite of her rudeness at our last meeting, my good nature caused me
to send a cab for her. She wore the identical gray suit of years before
and her face was still unlined and dubiously clean.
"How do you do, Miss Francis? I'm glad to find you among the lucky ones.
Nowadays if we don't hear from old friends we automatically assume their
loss."
She looked at me as one scans an acquaintance whose name has been
embarrassingly forgotten. "There is no profit for you in this
politeness, Weener," she said abruptly. "I am here to beg a favor."
"Anything I can do for you, Miss Francis, will be a pleasure," I assured
her.
She began using a toothpick, but it was not the oldfashioned gold
one--just an ordinary wooden splinter. "Hum. You remember asking me to
superintend gathering specimens of _Cynodon dactylon_?"
"Circumstances have greatly altered since then," I answered.
"They have a habit of doing so. I merely mentioned your offer because
you coupled it with a chance to advance my own research as an
inducement. I am on the way to develop the counteragent, but to advance
further I need to make tests upon the living grass itself. The World
Control Congress has refused me permission to use specimens. I have no
private means of evading their fiat."
"An excellent thing. The decrees of the congress are issued for the
protection of all."
"Hypocrisy as well as unctuousness."
"What do you expect me to do?"
"You have a hundred hireling chemists, all of them with a string of
degrees, at your service. I want to borrow two of them and be landed on
some American mountain, above the snowline, where I can continue to
work."
"Besides being illegal--to mention such a thing is apparently
hypocritical--such a hazardous and absurd venture is hardly in the
nature of a business proposition, Miss Francis."
"Philanthropic, then."
"I have given fifty thousand pounds to set up nurseryschools right here
in London--"
"So the mothers of the little brats will be free to work in your
factories."
"I have donated ten thousand pounds to Indian famine relief--"
"So that you might cut the wages of your Hindu workers."
"I have subscribed five thousand pounds for sanitation in Szechwan--"
"Thereby lessening absenteeism from sickness among your coolies."
"I will not stoop to answer your insinuations," I said. "I merely
mentioned my gifts to show that my charities are on a worldwide scale
and there is little room in them for the relief of individuals."
"Do you think I come to you for a personal sinecure? I don't ask if you
have no concern outside selfish interest, for the answer is immediate
and obvious; but isnt it to that same selfish interest to protect what
remains of the world? If the other continents go as North America has
gone, will you alone be divinely translated to some extraterrestrial
sphere? And if so, will you take your wealth and power with you?"
"I am supporting three laboratories devoted exclusively to
antigraminous research and anyway the rest of the world is amply
protected by the oceans."
She removed the toothpick in order to laugh unpleasantly. "Once a
salesman always a salesman, Weener. Lie to yourself, deny facts, brazen
it out. The world was safe behind the saltband too, in the days when
Josephine Francis was a quack and charlatan."
"Admitting your great attainments, Miss Francis, the fact remains that
you are a woman and the adventure you propose is hardly one for a lady
to undertake."
"Weener, you are ineffable. I'm not a lady--I'm a chemist."
The conversation deadlocked as I waited for her to go. Oddly enough, in
spite of her sex and the illegality of her proposal, I was inclined to
help her, if she had approached me in a reasonable manner and not with
the uncouth bearing of a superior toward an inferior. If she _could_
find a counteragent, I thought ... if she could find a weapon, then the
possibility of utilizing the Grass as a raw material for food
concentrates, a design still tantalizingly just beyond the reach of our
researchworkers, might be realized. Labor costs would be cut to a
minimum....
I could not let the woman be her own worst enemy; I was big enough to
overlook her unfortunate attitudes and see through the cranky exterior
to the worthy idealist and true woman beneath. I was interrupted in my
thoughts by Miss Francis speaking again.
"North American landtitles have no value right now, but a man with money
who knew ahead of time the Grass could be destroyed ..."
How clumsy, I thought, trying to appeal to a cupidity I don't possess;
as if I would cheat people by buying up their very homes for sordid
speculation. "Miss Francis," I said, "purely out of generosity and in
remembrance of old times I am inclined to consider helping you. I
suppose you have the details of the equipment you will need, the
qualifications of your assistants, and a rough idea of what mountain you
might prefer as a location?"
"Of course," and she began rattling off a catalogue of items, stabbing
the air with her toothpick as a sort of running punctuation.
I stopped her with a raised hand. "Please. Reduce your list to writing
and leave it with my secretary. I will see what can be done."
As soon as she had gone I picked up the phone and cabled Tony Preblesham
to report to me immediately. The decision to send him with Miss Francis
had been instantaneous, but had I thought about it for hours no happier
design could have been conceived. Outside of General Thario there was
not another man in my organization I could trust so implicitly. The
expedition required double, no, triple secrecy and Preblesham could not
only guard against any ulterior and selfish aims Miss Francis might
entertain--to say nothing of the erratic or purely feminine impulses
which could possibly operate to the disadvantage of all concerned--but
take the opportunity to give the continent a general survey, both to
keep in view the utilization of the weed, whether or not it could be
conquered; and whatever possibilities a lay observer might see as to the
Grass perishing of itself.
_70._
"Mr. Albert Weener,
Queen Elizabeth Hotel,
Perth, Western Australia, A.C.
"Dear Sir:--
According to yr. instructions our party left Paramaribo on the 9th
inst. for Medellin, giving out that we were going to see possible
tin deposits near there. At Medellin I checked with our men & was
told that work gangs with the stuff needed to make landing fields
together with caches of gas & oil, enough for 3 times the flying
required had been dropped both at Mt. Whitney & on Banks Island. A.
W., I tell you the boys down there are on their toes. Of course I
did not tell them this, but gave them a real old fashioned Pep Talk,
& told them if they really made good they might be moved up to Rio
or Copenhagen or may be even London.
"Every thing being O.K. in Medellin, we left on the 12th inst.,
heading at first South to fool any nosey cops & then straight West
so as to be out of range of the patrol boats. It was quite late
before we could head North and the navigator was flying by
instruments so it was not until dawn that we saw land. You can sneer
all you like at Bro. Paul (& of course he has not had the benefits
of an Education like you, A. W.) but I want to tell you that when I
looked out of the port & saw nothing but green grass where houses &
trees & mtns. ought to have been, I remembered that I was a
backslider & sinful man. However, this is beside the point.
"The lady professor, Miss Francis I mean, & Mr. White & Mr. Black
were both so excited they could hardly eat, but kept making funny
remarks in some foreign language which I do not understand. However
I do not think there was any thing wrong or disloyal to you in their
conversation.
"You would have thought that flying over so much green would have
got tiresome after some time, but you would have been wrong. I am
sorry I cannot describe it to you, but I can only say again that it
made me think of my Account with my Maker.
"While I think of it, altho it does not belong here, in Paramaribo I
had to fire our local man as he had got into trouble with the Police
there & was giving Cons. Pem. a bad name. He said it was on the
Firm's account, but I told him you did not approve of breaking the
Law at all.
"We had no trouble sighting the party at Mt. Whitney & I want to
tell you, A. W., it was a great relief to get rid of the Scientists
altho they are no doubt all right in their way. Some of the work
gang kicked at being left behind altho that was in our agreement.
They said they were sick of the snow & the sight of the Grass
beyond. I said we only had room in the transport for the Banks Is.
gang & anyway they would have company now. I promised them we would
pick them up on our next trip.
"Miss Francis & the 2 others acted like crazy. They kept shaking
each other's hands & saying We are here, we are here, altho any body
but a Nut would have thought saying it was a waste of time as even a
small child could have seen that they were. And any way, why any
body should want to be there is some thing beyond me.
"We took off from Whitney on the 14th inst., flying back S. West.
There were no land marks, but the navigator told me when we were
over the Site of L. A. I have to report that the Grass looked no
different in this Area, where it is the oldest. Then we flew North
E., looking for the Gt. Salt Lake according to yr. instructions. I
am sorry to say that we could not find it altho we flew back & forth
for some time, searching while the instruments were checked. The
Lake has disappeared in the Grass.
"We headed North E. by E., finding no land marks except a few peaks
above the snow on the Rocky Mtns. I am very glad to say that the Gt.
Lakes are still there, altho much smaller & L. Erie & L. Ontario so
shrunk I might have missed them if the pilot had not pointed them
out. The St. Lawrence River is of course gone.
"We followed the line of the big Canadian Lakes N., but except for
Depressions (which may be Swamps) in the latitudes of the Gt. Bear &
Gt. Slave Lakes, there is nothing but Grass. We stayed over night at
Banks Is. & it was very cold & miserable, but we were happy to
remember that there was no Grass underneath the Snow below us. Next
morning (the 16th) after fueling up we took off (with the ground
crew) for the Homeward trip.
"Stopping at Whitney, every thing was O.K. except that I did not see
the lady professor (Miss Francis, I mean) as Mr. White and Mr. Black
said she was too busy.
"I will be in London to meet you on the 1st as arranged & give you
any further news you want. Until then, I remain,
Yrs. Truly,
A. Preblesham, Vice-Pres. in Chge of Field Operations,
Cons. Pem."
I cannot say Preblesham's report was particularly enlightening, but it
at least squelched any notion the Grass might be dying of itself. I did
not expect any great results from the scientists' expedition, but I felt
it worth a gamble. In the meantime I dismissed the lost continent from
my mind and turned to more immediate concerns.
_71._ The disappearance of American foundries and the withdrawal of the
Russian products from export after their second revolution had forced a
boom in European steel. English, French, and German manufacturers of
automobiles, rails, and locomotives, anticipating tremendously enlarged
outlets for their output--even if those new markets still fell short of
the demand formerly drawing upon the American factories--had earmarked
the entire world supply for a long time to come.
Since I owned large blocks of stock, not only in the industries, but in
the rollingmills as well, this boom was profitable to me. I had long
since passed the point where it was necessary, no matter how great my
expenses or philanthropies, for me to exert myself further; but as I
have always felt anyone who gains wealth without effort is no better
than a parasite, I was contracting for new plants in Bohemia, Poland,
Northern Italy and France. I did not neglect buying heavily into the
Briey Basin and into the Swedish oremines to ensure the future supply of
these mills. In spite of the able assistance of Stuart Thario and the
excellent spadework of Preblesham, I was so busy at this time--for in
addition to everything else the sale of concentrates diagrammed an
everascending spiral--that food and sleep seemed to be only irritating
curtailments of the workingday.
It was the fashion when I was a youth for novelists to sneer at
businessmen and proclaim that the conduct of industry was a simple
affair, such as any halfwit could attend to with but a portion of his
mind. I wish these cynics could have come to know the delicate workings
and balances of my intricate empire. We in responsible positions, and
myself most of all, were on a constant alert, ready for instant decision
or personal attention to a mass of new detail at any moment.
_72._ On one of the occasions when I had to fly to Copenhagen it was
Winifred and not General Thario who met me at the airport. "General T is
so upset," she explained in her vivacious way, "that I had to come
instead. But perhaps I should have sent Pauline?"
I assured her I was pleased to see her and hastened to express concern
for her father.
"Oh, it's not him at all, really," she said. "It's Mama. She's all
bothered about Joe."
I lowered my voice respectfully and said I was sure Mrs Thario was
overcome with grief and perhaps I had better not intrude at such a time.
"Poo!" dissented Winifred. "Mama doesnt know what grief is. She's simply
delighted at Joe's doing a Custer, but she's awfully bothered about his
music."
"In what way?" I asked. "Do you mean getting it performed?"
"Getting it performed, nothing. Getting it suppressed. That a long line
of generals and admirals should wind up in a composer is to her a
disgrace which will need a great deal of living down. It preys on her
mind. Poor old Stuart is home now reading her choice passages from the
_Winning of the West_ by Theodore Roosevelt to soothe her nerves."
I had been more than a little apprehensive of meeting Mama again, but
Winifred's report seemed to reassure me that she would be confined, if
not to bed, at least to her own apartments. I was sadly disillusioned to
find her ensconced in a comfortable armchair beside a brightly burning
fire, the general with a book held open by his thumb. He greeted me with
his usual affection. "Albert, I'm sorry I wasnt able to get to the
airport."
I shook his hand and turned to his wife. "I regret to hear you are
indisposed, Mrs Thario."
"Spare me your damned crocodile tears. Where is my son?"
"In his last letter he suggested he would remain in our country as long
as it existed; however it is possible--even probable he escaped. Let us
hope so, Mrs Thario."
"That's the sort of damned hogwash you feed to green troops, not to
veterans. My son is dead. In action. My grandfather went the same way at
Chancellorsville. Do you think me some whimpering broompusher to weep at
the loss of a son on the battlefield?"
Stuart Thario put his hand on her arm. "Easy ... bloodpressure ... no
excitement."
"Not in regimentals," said Mama, and relapsed into silence.
We had a very uneasy dinner, during which we were unable to discuss
business owing to the presence of the ladies. Afterward the general and
I withdrew with our coffee--he did not drink at home, so I missed the
clarity which always accompanied his indulgence--and were deep in
figures and calculations when Winifred summoned us hastily.
"General, Mr Weener, come quickly! Mama ..."
We hurried into the living room, I for one anticipating Mama if not in
the throes of a stroke at least in a faint. But she was standing upright
before the open fire, an unsheathed cavalry saber in her hand. It was
clearly a family relic, for from its guard dangled the golden tassel of
the United States Army and on its naked blade were little spots of rust,
but it looked dangerous enough as she warned us off with a sweep of it.
In her other hand I recognized the bulky manuscript of George Thario's
First Symphony which she was burning, page by page.
"Some damned impostor," she said. "Some damned impostor."
"Harriet," protested the general, "Harriet, please ... the boy's work
... only copy ..."