The City of Numbered Days

It was not characteristic of Brouillard-the Brouillard Grislow knew best-that he shouldsuffer the purely technical talk of dams and reservoirs, bed-rock anchorages, and the latestword in concrete structural processes to languish and should drift into personalreminiscences over their first evening camp-fire in the Niquoia. Because the personalities were gratefully varying the monotonies, and also because he hada jocose respect for the unusual, Grislow was careful not to discourage the drift. There hadbeen a benumbing surfeit of the technical talk dating from the day and hour when theorders had come from Washington giving Brouillard his step up and directing him toadvance with his squad of Reclamation-Service pioneers upon the new work in the westernTimanyonis. But, apart from this, the reminiscences had an experimental value. Grislow'sone unamiable leaning manifested itself in a zest for cleverly turning the hidden facets ofthe human polygon up to the light; and if the facets chose to turn themselves of their ownaccord, as in Brouillard's case, why, so much the better.