iumphantly at the impressed brass and braid. He
looked pointedly at the pin-striped suit who probably controlled
congressional purse strings.

"Apparently he is at a point where he cannot divert his attention to
us, gentlemen," he breathed in a hushed voice. He placed his fingers
to his lips and began to tip-toe backwards toward the door.

The beef trust in fancy uniform came up on their own toesies, and also
tiptoed away from the genius scientist. By now, the genius was
beginning to exude large drops of sweat.

The door closed behind them, and the Chief dropped the cold soldering
iron with a sigh of relief. He took hold of his tongue, where he must
have been biting into it. He wiped his forehead and fingers with his
breast-pocket handkerchief.

Both the Chief and I heard the party walking down the hall and into
another wing of the building. I still didn't make a sound. It would
never do for the Chief to know he had been observed. After a suitable
time, the Chief, also, tiptoed out of the lab, and he was mumbling to
himself as I have never seen him mumble before.

* * * * *

Several days later another thing appeared on Kenzie's work bench. This
time it was a large rectangular glass aquarium. It was filled with
moist earth. Now here was something new in electronics!

We shook our heads. One of the techs, who fancied himself a
psychologist, said the boys were suffering from retrogressive
dementia. They had gone so far back into childhood, they had to play
sand box. The Chief overheard the tech, and spoke up plaintively.

"But I don't see any celluloid spade and bucket," he said. He seemed
relieved when we burst out laughing.

His relief didn't last long, however. It changed to more worry when he
saw the boys carefully sprinkling bread and meat crumbs over the
surface of the sand. Then on top of that they dropped moist bits of
cake icing. When Pringle brought down a marigold plant, all covered
with aphis, and transplanted it in a corner of the aquarium, the
Chief again ran into his office and began to hold his head in his
hands.

More days passed. The gadget became a bristling porcupine of test
clips. By now the boys had forgotten they were working for the Company
and spent practically all their time on the whoozits. The Chief became
so fascinated, in a kind of horror-stricken manner, that he did not
mention the aquarium to Kenzie at all.

The rest of us also kept away from that