waiting. He singled one and clapped brisk hands smartly with the air of a
man who wanted to wake himself from the abstraction of bothersome visions.
"Well, Mister Public Works, how about the last lap of paving on McNamee
Avenue? Can we open up tomorrow? I plan on showing our arriving
legislative cousins clean thoroughfares on Capitol Hill, you know!"

"I'm losing fourteen men off the job at noon today, Your Honor! Grabbed
off without notice," grumbled the superintendent.

"Grabbed off for what?"

"Well, maybe, to keep our paving-blocks from being thrown through the
windows of the State House!"

"Who is taking those men from their work?"

"The adjutant-general. They're Home Guard boys."

"Something busted out in Patagonia needing the attention of a League of
Nations army?" inquired the mayor, putting an edge of satire on his
astonishment.

The superintendent shot a swift stare past the mayor. "Perhaps Danny
Sweetsir, there, can tell you--_Captain_ Daniel Sweetsir." The public
works man copied the mayor's sarcasm by dwelling on the title he applied
to Sweetsir.

The mayor took a look, too.

A young man in overalls and jumper had hurried into the office from the