So scientists with seismographs, and even dousers with willow twigs, began to seek out the source of this unnerving, almost supersonic, thrilling of the planet crust. Eventually, they located the tiny green plants with the spirally leaves at the center--the loudest point--of each network. Someone recognized the plant, and they confirmed this someone's suspicions by a check of the Public Library's back issues of _Botanist's Quarterly_. It was the moonplant, all right. The Peter W. Merrill Moonplant. Yes sir. That's what it was. The public, though, was not satisfied with the finding of a _name_ for the disturbance, and insisted that it be brought to a _halt_ somehow. Naturally, the International Society of Botanists, Biologists and Biochemists raised one hell of a fuss about this, but on a democratic planet they were summarily outvoted, and all spirally little green Peter W. Merrill Moonplants were--well, not _uprooted_; that would be impossible--But they were all cropped flush with the earth wherever found, and salt, acid, and all manner of nasty things poured into the stumps. * * * * * However, nothing happened at all to the vibrations. People began to get fidgety, and started petitioning their representatives in government to _Do Something_. A lot of speeches were then made, all over Earth, about the noise and general disturbance of the moonplant roots, but none of them offered a solution to the increasing racket. It was about this time that plumblines started hanging crooked. Oh, it wasn't detected at first. How could it be, at first? Because you judge things by plumblines, not vice-versa. However, in a month, when everything was about five degrees off the vertical, notice began to be taken. When oranges began rolling off the ground in the California and Florida groves, and huddling in a mound here and there upon the countryside, the Spirit of Worry injected itself into the public consciousness. Niagara Falls' spectacular skew-wise splashing toward the Canadian side didn't set many hearts at ease, either. And then someone remembered the moonplants, and saw that each new apparent gravity-tug was coming from the stump of one of the plants, and a leading scientist figured out the answer, after getting a snipped-off segment of moonplant root and testing the hell out of it.