that Oka Sayye does not realize what I am up to as well as any of
the rest of the class, and you needn't think that he is not going
to give me a run for my brain. All I've got will be needed
before we finish this term."

"I see," said Linda, slowly nodding her head.

"I wish," said Donald, "that we had started this thing two years
ago, or better still, four. But of course you were not in the
high school four years ago and there wasn't a girl in my class or
among my friends who cared whether I beat the Jap or not. They
greatly preferred that I take them motoring or to a dance or a
picture show or a beach party. You're the only one except Mother
and Louise who ever inspired me to get down to business."

Linda laid her palm on the top of the sand heap and pressed it
flat. She looked at Donald with laughing eyes.

"Symbolical," she announced. "That sand was the Jap." She
stretched her hand toward him. "That was you. Did you see
yourself squash him?"

Donald's laugh was grim.

"Yes, I saw," he said. "I wish it were as easy as that."

"That was not easy," said Linda; "make a mental computation of
all the seconds that it took me to erect that pyramid and all the
millions of grains of sand I had to gather."