"Was I to go to tea at Madame Foret's this
afternoon, Abbott?"
"Yes, Mr. Secretary. Madame Foret called me up a few days ago and was
so kind and so explicit--"
"It's quite all right, Abbott. Mr. Fowler wondered, he said, if I was
to be invited!"
The two men looked at each other, then without further comment Enoch
began to dictate his long-delayed letters. The day was hectic but
Enoch turned off his work with zest.
Shortly after lunch the Director of the Geological Survey appeared.
Enoch greeted him cordially, and after a few generalities said, "Mr.
Cheney, what bomb are they preparing to explode now?"
Cheney ran his fingers through his white hair and sighed. "I guess I'm
getting too old for modern politics, Mr. Secretary. You'd better send
me back into the field. Neither you nor I knew it, but it seems that
I've been using those fellows out in the field for my own personal
ends. I have a group mining for me in the Grand Canyon and another
group locating oil fields for me in Texas."
Enoch laughed, then said seriously: "What's the idea, Mr. Cheney? Have
you a theory?"
Cheney shook his head. "Just innate deviltry, I suppose, on the part
of Congress."
"You've been chief of the Survey fifteen years, haven't you, Mr.
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