jawthat to everyone but his compatriots spelled determination and grit.To his staff and his men--me--it meant an ill-fitting lower plate.
That prognathous jaw was tilted, aimed at Morgan, and Morgan knew it.What had gone on just before I had come in? Just as I started to turnmy glance away, the General threw his famous scowl directly at me. Forone long second our eyes clung, almost glared. Then, without a sign ofemotion or recognition he went back to staring at the Undersecretarywith an intensity almost violent. Shaken back into self-consciousnessby that grim stare I tried to fit together some of the other facesabout the table.
Admiral Mason-Nason-Lacey--Admiral Lacey. I'd met him just a few daysbefore, in that ill-fated conference in the White House. What was theother name? Jessop. He was there, too, alongside Lacey. But where wasthe Army, outside of Simon Legree? That was like Simon, at that. Letthe Navy stick together; Legree was the _General_, and as such washimself the Army.
Who were the others? I knew none of them, certainly, although sometrick of memory made me sure that I had seen or heard of them before.Like faces in an old school album they presented themselves to me, andfor a long fraction of a minute I delved deep, trying to recall. Avoice, that deep barking bass I had heard while waiting, boomed acrossthe table.
"Mr. Morgan!" and the table seemed to quiver. "Mr. Morgan!" and thetenseness seemed to flow back into that huge room like a warm current.The Old Man leaned over and answered my unspoken question.
"Senator Suggs, Foreign Affairs Chairman."
I eyed the redoubtable senator. Short, swarthy skin that belied allhis ranted racial theories, hair that straggled by intent over hisweak green eyes, and a chin that retreated and quivered and joggled intime with his twitching adolescent eyebrows. Six solid terms in theSenate; six solid terms of appealing to the highest in theory and thelowest in fact; six terms of seniority for the chairmanship ofcommittees far too important for a bigot; six terms of Suggs, Suggs,Suggs. The bass rumbled on.
"We're no further ahead, Morgan, than we were two hours ago. This,definitely cannot go on, if it has to be taken to the peoplethemselves."
Morgan pondered well before he answered, and the room stilled.
"Senator," he said at last; "this is right now in the hands of thepeople, if you consider that you are one of the electedrepresentatives, and the rest of us are chosen, with one exception, bythose same elected representatives. The exception, naturally, is Mr.Miller."
Five Star Simon snorted. His nasal voice carried well. "People?" andthat brittle snap was only too familiar to me. "What have the peopleto do with it? This is no time for anything but a decision, and aquick one!"
Morgan agreed with that. "Correct, General. The question, I believe,is not that a decision be made, but the wording and definition of thatdecision."
"Bah!" and the cigar jumped to the other side. "Words! Definitions!Decisions! Words, words, words! Let's decide what's to be done and doit!"
The Undersecretary coughed gently behind his palm. "Unfortunately,General Legree, for the sake of speedy action, and as unfortunatelyfor the sake of all concerned, words mean one thing to one man, andanother thing to a second."
* * * * *
A fine party this turned out to be. In the dark as to what happenedbefore I came in, and equally at sea as to what was going on, I leanedtoward the Old Man.
"What's this?" I whispered.
He shot a quick retort. "Keep your mouth shut for the time being." Hepaused, and then bent in my direction. "You'll get your chance totalk." He grasped my extended arm tightly. "I'll nudge you when thetime comes. Then talk, and _talk_! You know what I mean?"
Did I? I didn't know. He saw my indecision and motioned for quiet.Evidently he was expecting me to catch the trend if I waited longenough. I waited, and I watched, and I listened.
Simon had been right about one thing. Words, words, words. But I beganto get some of the drift. They'd already settled the part of theproblem I thought was supposed to be bothering them. They'd decidedthat since the news on me was out, the facts had to be faced--the waythey understand facing them.
I should have been reading the papers or listening to the radio. Itmust have been something to hear when the news that I was a new secretweapon to end them all was confirmed; but they'd confused the issue byindicating that I was just one of the men with the new power, and thatthe country was now practically blanketed with it.
It was fine for them. It meant that the people were happy, and thatArmy, Navy and all the other departments were being openly andpublicly adulated for the fine thing they had done for everyone.
The Undersecretary made an answer to one of Simon's remarks. I hadn'tbeen listening for a few seconds while the scheme sank in, but thisregistered.
"You're right, of course, General. Certain foreign information bureauswon't be deceived by the confusion we've created. And that stillleaves us with the unfortunate need for speedy action on the case ofMr. Miller."
Suggs rolled his bass across the room. It was the only characteristiche had favorable to eye or ear.
"Unfortunate, Mr. Undersecretary? Unfortunate is hardly the word todescribe an event so favorable for the fortunes for all."
Favorable. Me? Was I good or bad? I came in just in the middle of thepicture. Keep your ears and your eyes and your ears open, Miller, andcatch up on the feature attraction.
Suggs licked his razor-sharp lips and hooked his fingers in hisstained vest.
"'Unfortunate,' Mr. Undersecretary? Hardly!" He loved to hear his ownvoice. "This country, these great United States, these states havenever in their existence been in such a favorable position astoday...."
I would rather have read the Congressional Record. That, at least, Icould have discarded when I became bored.
"No, never in such a favorable position; diplomatically,economically...."
The Undersecretary coughed politely. It's nice to be tactful and knowhow to break in.
"To use your own words, Senator. 'Hardly!' Diplomatically we are atthe brink of one of the worst imaginable pitfalls."
The medals on Five Star clinked. "Bosh!"
Morgan went on. "Where would you like to live, gentlemen?" and hisglance flicked around the table; "in the best liked or most hatedcountry in the world?"
* * * * *
It mattered not to Five Star, nor to Suggs.
"What difference does it make, Mr. Undersecretary? Speaking for myselfand my constituents, I can truthfully say that the opinion of theworld matters not one good solitary damn. Who cares what some othercountry has got to say, if words can't be backed up with action? Rightnow, and you know it as well as you're sitting there, Mr.Undersecretary, right now Uncle Sam is known all over the world asUncle Sucker, and Uncle Shylock. Europe and Asia have had what theywanted over my protests and those of my constituents, and now Europeand Asia can go hang, for all I care. That's What they want us to do!"
He gave Morgan no chance to break in. That rolling bass rattled offthe walls and crinkled my ears.
"Europe and Asia and the rest of the world could never affect us oneway or another, favorable or otherwise, if it weren't for theninny-headed mouthings of a few influential morons. Fight, Mr.Undersecretary, fight and murder and declare war and blow up millionsof people and then run to Uncle Sam to pay the bills. I say, Mr.Undersecretary, I say what I've said before and what I'll say again;if Europe and Asia and the rest of the world don't like what we dohere in these United States, let Europe and Asia and the rest of theworld go to hell!"
Suggs wasn't a bit excited. Those grand, those mellifluous and rotundphrases rolled out of those skinny lips at a mile-a-minute pace withnever a flicker of emotion but a nervous twitching of the droopingeyelids. If that was the way he talked when calm, I could see why hehad been sent back and back to the Senate time after time.
The General deliberately tossed his cigar on the floor and pounded hisfist on the table.
"Well said, Senator! My sentiments exactly. If Europ
e and Asia and therest of the world don't like what we do here, let 'em all go to hell,or better yet, let's send them there in a hand-basket."
Bloodthirsty old bat. I never remembered seeing him any too close tothe jumping-off point. That's what generals are for, they tell me.
"I say to hell with them all, and the sooner they know about it, thebetter for all concerned." His gaudy gold case, the gift of a gratefulstaff, was on the table in front of him, and he jerked out a cigarwith a flourish. A light with a gold lighter, and he puffed thickclouds.
Morgan coughed politely. "Regardless, Senator, of what has or what ishappening, we're concerned at present with what might happen."
Suggs opened his mouth like a thirsty carp