Well, let"s get it over with. We did. We left for the capital that night.
We slipped in the back door, or what pa.s.sed for the back door. Pretty elaborate layout, the White House. Our footsteps rang as hollow as my heart on the shiny waxed floors.
The Old Man did the honors. "Mr. President, this is Mr. Miller."
He shook hands. He had a good grip.
"General Hayes, you know. Admiral Lacey, Admiral Jessop, Mr. Hoover you know, General Buckley. Gentlemen. Mr. Miller."
We shook hands all around. "Glad to know you." My palms were slippery.
The President sat, and we followed suit. The guest of honor, I felt like my head was shaved, and I had a slit pants leg. You don"t meet the President every day.
The President broke the ice. It was thin to begin with. "You have within yourself the ability, the power, to do a great deal for your country, Mr. Miller, or would you prefer to be called Pete?"
Pete was all right. He was older, and bigger. Bigger all around.
"A great deal of good, or a great deal of harm."
No harm. I"m a good citizen.
"I"m sure of that. But you can understand what I mean, by harm."
Likely I could, if I really wanted to. But I didn"t. Not the place where you were born.
"Naturally, Pete, it makes me feel a great deal better, however, to hear you say and phrase it just like that." The light of the lamp glittered on his gla.s.ses. "Very, very much better, Pete."
I was glad it was dark beyond the range of the lamp. My face was red.
"Thank you, Mr. President."
"I like it better, Pete, because from this day on, Pete, you and I and all of us know that you, and you alone, are going to have a mighty hard row to hoe." That"s right; he was a farmer once. "Hard in this respect--you understand, I know, that for the rest of your natural life you must and shall be guarded with all the alert fervor that national security demands. Does that sound too much like a jail sentence?"
It did, but I lied. I said, "Not exactly, Mr. President. Whatever you say is all right with me."
He smiled. "Thank you, Pete.... Guarded as well and as closely as--the question is, where?"
I didn"t know I"d had a choice. The Old Man had talked to me before on that.
"Not exactly, Pete. This is what I mean: General Buckley and General Hayes feel that you will be safest on the mainland somewhere in the Continental United States. Admirals Lacey and Jessop, on the other hand, feel that the everpresent risk of espionage can be controlled only by isolation, perhaps on some island where the personnel can be exclusively either military or naval."
I grinned inwardly. I knew this was going to happen.
"Mr. Hoover concedes that both possible places have inherent advantages and disadvantages," the President went on. "He feels, however, that protection should be provided by a staff specially trained in law-enforcement and counter-espionage."
So where did that leave me? I didn"t say it quite that way, but I put across the idea.
The President frowned a bit at nothing. "I"m informed you haven"t been too ... comfortable."
I gulped. Might as well be hung for a sheep. If the Boss likes you, the Help must. "I"m sorry, Mr. President, but it isn"t much fun being shifted around pillar and post."
He nodded slowly. "Quite understandable, under the circ.u.mstances.
That, we"ll try to eliminate as much as we can. You can see, Pete,"
and he flashed that famous wide grin, "it will be in the national interest to see that you are always in the finest physical and mental condition. Crudely expressed, perhaps, but the truth, nevertheless."
I like people to tell me the truth. He could see that. He"s like that, himself. On his job, you have to be like that.
"Now, Pete; let"s get down to cases. Have you any ideas, any preferences, any suggestions?" He took a gold pencil out of his breast pocket and it began to twirl.
I had an idea, all right. "Why not just let me go back home? I"ll keep my mouth shut, I won"t blow any fuses or raise any h.e.l.l, if you"ll excuse the expression."
Someone coughed. The President turned his head out of the circle of light. "Yes, Mr. Hoover?"
J. Edgar Hoover was diffident. "Er ... Mrs. Miller has been informed of her husband"s ... demise. An honorable one," he hastened to add, "and is receiving a comfortable pension, paid from the Bureau"s special funds."
"How much?" I wanted to know.
He shifted uncomfortably. "Well ... a hundred a month."
I looked at the President. "Bought any b.u.t.ter lately?"
The President strangled a cough. "Have you, Mr. Hoover, bought any b.u.t.ter lately?"
J. Edgar Hoover couldn"t say anything. It wasn"t his fault.
I flicked a glance at General Hayes. "How much does it cost the Army for an antiaircraft gun?" I looked at one of the admirals. "And how much goes down the drain when you launch a battleship? Or even a PT boat?"
The President took over. "Rest a.s.sured, Mr. Miller. Your wife"s pension is quadrupled, effective immediately." He swung his chair to face Hoover; "Cash will be transferred tomorrow to the Bureau from the State Department"s special fund. You"ll see to that?" to the Old Man.
So that was what he did for a living. That State Department is a good lifetime job, I understand.
That took a load from my mind, but not all. I spoke to Hoover directly.
"How is my ... widow?"
As tense and as bad as I felt just then, I was sorry for him.
"Quite well, Mr. Miller. Quite well, considering. It came as a blow to her, naturally--"
"What about the house?" I asked him. "Is she keeping up the payments?"
He had to admit that he didn"t know. The President told him to finish the payments, pay for the house. Over and above the pension? Over and above the pension. And I was to get a regular monthly report on how she was getting along.
"Excuse me, Mr. President. I"d rather not get a regular monthly report, or any word at all, unless she--unless anything happens to her."
"No report at all, Pete?" That surprised, him, and he eyed me over the top of his bifocals.