The sea lions felt it and their barking took on a tone and a cadence that would have gladdened the heart of St. Francis. Little girls studying their catechism suddenly looked up and giggled for no reason at all. Perhaps some electrical finder could have been developed so delicate that it could have located the source of all this spreading joy and fortune And triangulation might possibly have located it in the Palace Flophouse and Grill. Certainly the Palace was lousy with it. Mack and the boys were charged. Jones was seen to leap from his chair only to do a quick tap dance and sit down again. Hazel smiled vaguely at nothing at all. The joy was so general and so sdfused that Mack had a hard time keeping it centered and aimed at its objective. Eddie who had worked at La Ida pretty regularly was accumulating a cellar of some promise. He no longer added beer to the wining jug. It gave a flat taste to the mixture, he said.

Sam Malloy had planted morning glories to grow over the boiler. He had put out a little awning and under it he and his wife often sat in the evening. She was crocheting a bedspread.

The joy even got into the Bear Flag. Business was good. Phyllis Mae’s leg was knitting nicely and she was nearly ready to go to work again. Eva Flanegan got back from East St. Louis very glad to be back. It had been hot in East St. Louis and it hadn’t been as fine as she remembered it. But then she had been younger when she had had so much fun there.

The knowledge or conviction about the party for Doc was no sudden thing. It did not burst out full blown. People knew about it but let it grow gradually like a pupa in the cocoons of their imaginations.

Mack was realistic about it. “Last time we forced her,” he told the boys. “You can’t never give a good party that way. You got to let her creep up on you.”

“Well when’s it going to be?” Jones asked impatiently.

“I don’t know,” said Mack.

“Is it gonna be a surprise party?” Hazel asked.

“It ought to, that’s the best kind,” said Mack.

Darling brought him a tennis ball she had found and he threw it out the door into the weeds. She bounced away after it.

Hazel said, “If we knew when was Doc’s birthday, we could give him a birthday party.”

Mack’s mouth was open. Hazel constantly surprised him. “By God, Hazel, you got something,” he cried. “Yes, sir, if it was his birthday there’d be presents. That’s just the thing. All we got to find out is when it is.”

“That ought to be easy,” said Hughie. “Why don’t we ask him?”

“Hell,” said Mack. “Then he’d catch on. You ask a guy when is his birthday and especially if you’ve already give him a party like we done, and he’ll know what you want to know for. Maybe I’ll just go over and smell around a little and not let on.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Hazel.

“No — if two of us went, he might figure we were up to something.”

“Well, hell, it was my idear,” said Hazel.

“I know,” said Mack. “And when it comes off why I’ll tell Doc it was your idear. But I think I better go over alone.”

“How is he — friendly?” Eddie asked.

“Sure, he’s all right.”

Mack found Doc way back in the downstairs part of the laboratory. He was dressed in a long rubber apron and he wore rubber gloves to protect his hands from the formaldehyde. He was injecting the veins and arteries of small dogfish with color mass. His little ball mill rolled over and over, mixing the blue mass. The red fluid was already in the pressure gun. Doc’s fine hands worked precisely, slipping the needle into place and pressing the compressed air trigger that forced the color into the veins. He laid the finished fish in a neat pile. He would have to go over these again to put blue mass in the arteries. The dogfish made good dissection specimens.

“Hi, Doc,” said Mack. “Keepin’ pretty busy?”

“Busy as I want,” said Doc. “How’s the pup?”

“Doin’ just fine. She would of died if it hadn’t been for you.”

For a moment a wave of caution went over Doc and then slipped off. Ordinarily a compliment made him wary. He had been dealing with Mack for a long time. But the tone had nothing but gratefulness in it. He knew how Mack felt about the pup. “How are things going up at the Palace?”

“Fine, Doc, just fine. We got two new chairs. I wish you’d come up and see us. It’s pretty nice up there now.”

“I will,” said Doc. “Eddie still bring back the jug?”

“Sure,” said Mack. “He ain’t puttin’ beer in it no more and I think the stuff is better. It’s got more zip.”

“It had plenty of zip before,” said Doc.

Mack waited patiently. Sooner or later Doc was going to wade into it and he was waiting. If Doc seemed to open the subject himself it would be less suspicious. This was always Mack’s method.

“Haven’t seen Hazel for some time. He isn’t sick, is he?”

“No,” said Mack and he opened the campaign. “Hazel is all right. Him and Hughie are havin’ one hell of a battle. Been goin’ on for a week,” he thudded. “An’ the funny thing is it’s about somethin’ they don’t neither of them know nothin’ about. I stayed out of it because I don’t know nothin’ about it neither, but not them. They’ve even got a little mad at each other.”

“What’s it about?” Doc asked.