"Y-yes, sir. I'll try, sir."
"If we had soil-coagulants enough," said Hardwick vexedly, "we could handle that upside-down swamp the civilians have so carefully made, here. But we haven't got it! But the freshened sea water they've been irrigating with is practically mineral-free! I want to know how much mineral content in the water would keep the swamp-mud from acting like wet soap. It's entirely possible that we'd have to make the soil too salty to grow anything, in order to anchor it. But I want to know!"
Barnes said uncomfortably:
"Wouldn't you, sir ... wouldn't you have to put the minerals in irrigation-water to get them down to the ... the swamp?"
Hardwick grinned, very surprisingly.
"You've got promise, Barnes! Yes. I would. And it would increase the rate of slide before it stopped it. Which could be another problem. But it was good work to think of it! When we get back to Headquarters, you commandeer a laboratory and make those measurements for me."
"Yes, sir," said Barnes.
"We'll start back now," said Hardwick.
The recreation-boat obediently turned. It went out to sea until the water flowing past its hull was crystal-clear. And Hardwick seemed to relax. On the way they passed more small boats. Many of them were gardeners' boats, from which men dived with diving masks to tend or harvest the cultivated garden-patches not too far down. But many were pleasure boats, from double-hulled sailing craft intended purely for sport, to sturdy though small cabin cruisers which could venture far out to sea, or even around to the windward of the island for sport-fishing. All the pleasure craft were crowded—there were usually some children—and it was noticeable that on each one there were always some faces turned toward the shore.